ITALY : A top Italian doctor has claimed that coronavirus has weakened from being like a “tiger” to a “wild cat” and may even disappear without a vaccine.

The bug is becoming less deadly as it spreads, according to Professor Matteo Bassetti, head of an infectious diseases clinic at Italy’s Policlinico San Martino hospital.

If the virus’s weakening is true, Covid-19 could even disappear without a for a vaccine by becoming so weak it dies out on its own, he claimed.

Professor Matteo Bassetti said that he has recently seen elderly patients recovering who would have died earlier on in the pandemic.
“It was like an aggressive tiger in March and April but now it’s like a wild cat. Even elderly patients, aged 80 or 90, are now sitting up in bed and they are breathing without help,” he told the international media outlet.

The infectious disease doctor has made similar claims in the past but sparked criticism for being over-optimistic.

Italy reported 49 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday, compared with 47 a day earlier, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases rose to 262.

The country’s death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 now stands at 34,610, the agency said, the world’s fourth-highest after the United States, Brazil and Britain.

The number of confirmed cases amounts to 238,275, the eighth-highest global tally. The agency said a recalculation in the regional count meant two fewer cases were reported in previous days.

The number of people registered as currently carrying the illness fell to 21,212.