Italy's foreign minister says covid-19 situation in Naples is "out of control."

A video posted on social media showing an elderly man lying dead in a Naples hospital toilet has prompted Italy's foreign affairs minister Luigi Di Maio to declare the situation in the southern Italian city as "out of control."

The video, which has gone viral since it was posted yesterday, was taken in the emergency room of the Cardarelli Hospital where the man - suspected of having covid-19 - was waiting for a test, reports Reuters.

The hospital described the posting of the video on social media as "deplorable."

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Di Maio, who described the scenes as "shocking," said that the central government "must intervene immediately and we must do so above all in the south, which risks imploding," reports ANSA.

In the amateur video, the crowded emergency room appears in a chaotic condition, highlighting the divide in the health systems between Italy's rich, well-equipped north and the poor south.

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The first wave of Italy's covid-19 pandemic was concentrated largely in the north, while the south escaped relatively unscathed.

However now it is struggling to cope with the emergency, with local doctors saying the situation in Naples' hospitals is "on the verge of collapse," according to ANSA.