Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash

An Italian hospital that was besieged during the COVID-19 crisis has welcomed 15 babies into the world in a single day – the first time it has ever happened.

The 15 newborns, including twins, were born at Cremona Hospital in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.

According to Aldo Riccardi, the hospital’s head of obstetrics and gynaecology, the babies are 10 girls and five boys, and the mothers are all doing well.

Local media said the 15 babies were born between 3pm on 26th June and 3pm the following day, a record for the hospital which was hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in recent months.

Riccardi said: “We like to think of it as a renaissance after all these hard months.

“Doctors, nurses and other staff members worked 24 hours nonstop and showed huge team commitment.”

He said that the last of the 15 births that day took place in the hospital room because “there was no space in the delivery room”.

Riccardi added that the birth took place without a hitch.

Annalisa Abbiati and Gaetano Scalzone, the on-duty doctors on Friday and Saturday, said: “It was a joy explosion!”

They added: “We saw babies being born one after the other and it didn’t seem real that this was happening to us.”

Before being discharged, all the mums posed for a photo together in the hospital.

Riccardi said: “For all of us here, it is a real reason to feel proud.”

According to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University, Italy has registered 240,436 cases of COVID-19 and 34,744 related deaths.