Before revision:  Our epidemic risk index shows strong correlations with the available official data of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy and explain in particular why regions like Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte and Veneto are suffering much more than the rest of the country in terms of infected cases, intensive care units and deceased patients .
After revision:  Our epidemic risk index shows strong correlations with the available official data on the number of infected individuals, patients in intensive care and deceased patients, and can explain why regions such as Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Piemonte and Veneto are suffering much more than the rest of the country in terms of infected cases, intensive care units and deceased patients .