Italy did not revise its COVID-19 death toll

THE FACTS: Posts circulating on Instagram and Facebook falsely claim that Italy has revised its COVID-19 death toll due to reporting errors or changes to reporting methodology. The Italian Ministry of Health has not revised the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 numbers, official data shows.

Health officials say statistics in an Italian National Health Service report on the number of people who died of the virus with no comorbidities are being misrepresented. As of Monday, the Italian Health Ministry dashboard shows Italy has had 4,812,594 COVID-19 cases and 132,423 deaths, proving the death toll has not been revised downward. The false claims misrepresent figures from an October study by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, the research arm of the Italian National Health Service, which said 2.9% of individuals who died of COVID-19 in the country had no pre-existing conditions. In an email to The Associated Press, ISS spokesperson Pier David Malloni said the false posts stemmed from a misleading article in the Italian press that erroneously reported that only 2.9% of the people deceased with a positive test for COVID-19 were really killed by the virus. "This is completely wrong," Malloni said. He added that the report stated that 2.9% of the people who died did not have other comorbidities. Having multiple chronic health conditions puts individuals at greater risk for complications and death from COVID-19, Malloni said, adding that COVID-19 is listed as the cause of death in cases where there are complicating risk factors. According to Malloni, Italy follows the European Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization rules in classifying COVID-19 deaths.

— Associated Press writer Terrence Fraser in New York contributed this report.