COVID-19 in the Lombardy region: Socio-spatial peripheries and forgotten densities of long-term care

This chapter addresses the crisis of care in the Lombardy region, which has been substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is one of the wealthiest regions in Europe, during the pandemic Lombardy revealed emerging social and spatial peripheries of the contemporary society, identified in suburban contexts that results from non-linear processes of extended urbanization. Addressing the impacts of the virus on health infrastructures, and relying on the recent literature, the chapter examines a particular type of “forgotten density”—institutional environments like long-term care homes—that should be central to public health, but have been shown to be ill-prepared for COVID-19.