The numbers are certainly weird all around.

Here it is! RWN #223, featuring an interview with Romulus Hillsborough, author of several books on the Fall of the Shogunate and the Meiji Restoration. AND an update on the pandemic from @Annibal97783312 on the ground in northern Italy.https://t.co/hzGVqhXKmN

— The War Nerd (@TheWarNerd) March 26, 2020

In this interview Annibale makes the point that the ridiculously high death rate in Italy is concentrated in the Lombardy. Not in Piedmont and Veneto with around 3% and neither in the much poorer Sicily and Sardinia. And while he has no explanation he mentions that Lombardy is a much more friendly environment for private health insurance, which might have led to people getting treatment too late.
I'm also pretty livid that I get this from an American podcast, while our state TV goes to their London correspondent for news on the health of the royal spawn.