Covid-19 and territory: a provincial scale analysis

Abstract

The study explores “Covid-19 and territory: a provincial scale analysis”, reconstructing the problem and the main evidence developed in the text. These are obviously questions whose response requires complex, in-depth, multidisciplinary analyses, on the possible origins of the Covid-19 epidemic in Italy, patient 0 and the pathways of contagion. Although the estimate of the same data concerning the deaths from Covid-19 is subject to caution, due to the well-known phenomenon of “unexplained” deaths (Rector 2020; Bucci 2000), the indicator certainly represents an indisputable objective data on the nefarious effects of the epidemic, to the maximum to be considered undersized. As to say that the virus has hit to an absolutely different extent in the national territory, both in diffusion and in mortality rates (decessi every 100 thousand inhabitants) and lethality (decessi su contagi). We assume implicitly that the more an area is characterized by these factors, the more in it there can be conditions and opportunities for interpersonal interactions and therefore to transmit the virus. On the contrary, isolated territories, poorly infrastructured and integrated, which we have always considered disadvantaged, on the occasion of this new catastrophic event are less vulnerable.

Keywords

Public health; COVID-19 pandemic; Local authorities; environment; territorial indicators; social economy

JEL codes

I18; J21; H51