Number of intensive care units (ICU) pre- and post-COVID-19 in Italy 2020, by region

Before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, Italy counted approximately 5.2 thousand intensive care units (ICU) across the country. The region with the highest number of ICUs is Lombardy. However, the outbreak of the coronavirus outbreak showed that these resource were insufficient to face the pandemic. This required the installation of a considerable number of additional ICUs in order to keep up with the increasing number of patients in need of treatment, especially in the regions mostly hit. The region of Lombardy, which counted nearly one third of all the coronavirus cases in the country, had to increase the number of ICUs in its territory by 50 percent.