ROME – Alitalia, the national Italian carrier, is collaborating with the Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Unit to organise thousands of flights to bring back Italians stranded in foreign countries, with there are currently up to seven thousand requests every day, the head of the Crisis Unit, Stefano Verrecchia, told RaiNews 24.

  An Alitalia carrier left Fiumicino on Sunday without passengers to head to the Maldives, as the public service commences that will guarantee one flight per day from vital areas where many Italians are stranded, with two flights a day planned from New York and London, report Il Messaggero.

  The number of coronavirus cases in Italy has risen to 27,980, from which 2158 people have died. There are over 170,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, of which Italy ranks as second behind China.

  There are currently a 100,000 Italian students abroad, report Il Sole 24 Ore. Many of them are in the US and UK, and there are concerns as to the response of both these countries, with the UK adopting a controversial ‘herd immunity’ response to the crisis, and with the US appearing structurally compromised and slow to react.

  Italian student studying in the US, Arianna Pappone, send in a video to Il Messaggero from the US, in which she said, "I would prefer to go home at this time because even if the situation is serious (in Italy) we are managing it better.”

  Italy is the fourth country by number of exchange students, and there are growing concerns for Italians stranded in Spain, where the coronavirus is currently exploding, with some Italian students resorting to crowdfunding to get home, report eldiario.es.

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