A view of the Vo Vecchio cemetery, in Vo Euganeo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021. Shockwaves ran through the wine-making village of Vo, west of Venice, as word spread last Feb. 21 that a retired roofer had died of the new coronavirus becoming the first known COVID-19 victim in the West. AdAdriano Trevisan’s death sent shockwaves through the town west of Venice. That indicated that the virus had been circulating in the town since the end of January, according to Crisanti. “The virus in Vo arrived in Vo and died in Vo,” the mayor said of the first cases a year ago.

An oxygen canister is carried on a stretcher outside the first aid department of the Cardarelli hospital in Naples, Italy, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. Others bundle up their loved ones and head north, where Italian health care enjoys a better reputation — but many hospitals there are also overwhelmed. In Italy's health care system, each region manages its own spending. Italy’s Civil Protection force is currently recruiting 450 doctors to help the region care for COVID-19 patients. Only weeks before the pandemic began did Campania’s public health care system emerge from years of central government control, part of efforts to cut waste and drive down costs.