The first deaths outside of China due to COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), occurred in February 2020 [1]. Subsequently, there was widespread rapid transmission of the virus internationally, with a particularly challenging surge of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Italy [2–5], leading the World Health Organization to recognize the outbreaks officially as a pandemic in early March [6].
