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Italian coronavirus patients who are 80 or older will not receive intensive care if the crisis worsens, under emergency plans being proposed in Turin. 

The plans drawn up by civil protection officials warn that 'it will be necessary to apply criteria for access to intensive treatment' if there are too many patients.

The document, seen by the Daily Telegraph, proposes that these criteria 'must include age of less than 80'.  

Doctors have already described making life-or-death decisions about who can be treated and who may effectively be left to die.  One doctor said a patient's fate 'is decided by age and by health conditions', adding: 'This is how it is in a war.' 

Prime minister Giuseppe Conte warned today that the country is entering its 'riskiest weeks' as he signalled 'we have not yet reached the peak'.