An Italian priest died of coronavirus after giving a respirator that his parishioners bought for him to a younger patient, it has been revealed.

Giuseppe Berardelli, 72, from Casigno in Italy’s hardest-hit Lombardy region, died in a local hospital in recent days after being diagnosed with the virus.
Berardelli had been given a respirator – which is in desperately short supply – by parishioners concerned about his health but decided to give it to a younger patient who he didn’t know but was struggling to breathe because of the virus.
The exact age and condition of that patient are not known, but younger patients who are able to access respirators have a much greater chance of survival.

The extraordinary case was revealed by Jesuit priest James Martin, from the US, who is also a consultant to the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications.