ICU beds
Despite the enormous efforts made to increase physical infrastructure during the first wave, Italy is once again facing a scenario of ‘ICU capacity saturation’. By the end of October, most regions were still below 30% saturation of ICU capacity, which is the ‘alarm’ threshold indicated by the Ministry of Health. However, three regions out of twenty (two in the North and one in the South) have surpassed this limit and one central region, Umbria, has reached 53%, exceeding the saturation level reached on 3rd April, when the country reached its ICU peak level of stress of 43% (ALTEMS, 2020). The ICU additional capacity saturation rate at 28th October 2020, which measures the saturation rate of the extra capacity (set-up during the emergency specifically for Covid-19 patients mostly by Legislative Decree (DL) 34/2020) in terms of intensive care beds, indicates how many of these are occupied by COVID-19 patients.  Eight regions have already saturated the capacity of ICU beds requested by DL 34 and therefore are currently using structural capacity that should be dedicated to non-Covid – 19 patients.

PPE
Information released on 12th November 2020 by the Extraordinary Commissioner on the free distribution to Regions and Autonomous Provinces, for use by health personnel, Public Administration, law enforcement agencies, public service providers, nursing homes, local public transport and police have reached totals of:
• Almost 1 040 million  face masks, of which 57 million  over the last 7 days;
• Almost 70 million gloves, of which  6 million over the last 7 days;
• More than 17 million lab coats and gowns, of which almost 3 million over the last 7 days;
• Over 3 700 ICU ventilators, of which 396 over the last 7 days; 
• 1 550 Sub ICU ventilators, of which 121 over the last 7 days

The contribution of the Armed Forces during the second wave
Additional resources as of 2nd November, have been provided by the Armed Forces:
• 150 beds, of which 50 are sub-intensive or IC beds at the Military Hospital in Rome;
• 50 beds for Covid patients at the Military Hospital in Milan;
• 20 places for Covid patients and 2 resuscitation beds (which can be raised to 8 at the Military Hospital of Taranto);
• 4 temporary hospitals built in fields
• 18 structures with over 2000 vacancies and 830 rooms for civilian personnel in quarantine / isolation;
• Inflatable triage tents on the basis of Local Health Units requests
• 73 airplanes of the Armed Forces have been made available for transport and 285 vehicles with ventilators, medical equipment and PPEs.