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In the last week there has been an explosion of new Covid-19 cases
flying over 810 thousand, with an increase of 153% compared to the previous one".
This was revealed by the monitoring of the Gimbe Foundation, which, in the week 29 December-4 January, compared to the previous one, also recorded + 8.9% of deaths, which went from 1,012 to 1,102.
In 7 days the currently positive cases doubled, passing from 598,868 to 1,265,297 (+ 111.3%).
The "territorial health - highlights the monitoring - goes haywire" and "the pressure on hospitals also rises", with + 28% of hospitalizations with symptoms (from 10,089 to 12,912) and + 21.6% in intensive care (from 1,145 to 1,392).
Anti-Covid vaccinations in pediatric age do not take off. In the range between 5 and 11 years, in three weeks, they reached 401,532 administrations. On January 5 (7 am), 20,977,634 third doses were administered: based on the official audience of about 31 million people, the national coverage rate for third doses is 67.7% but with clear differences regional: from 54.6% of Sicily to 76.9% of Valle D'Aosta. In the week from 29 December to 4 January, a percentage increase in new cases of Covid-19 was recorded in all regions: from 66.8% in Liguria to 423.9% in Abruzzo. In 63 Provinces the incidence exceeds 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The provinces with over 1000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants are: Florence (3,058), Lodi (2,747), Monza and Brianza (2,677), Siena (2,631), Milan (2,538), Prato (2,503), Pisa (2,385), Rimini (2.315), Arezzo (2.275), Pavia (2.235), Pistoia (2.156), Lucca (2.136), Terni (2.079), Varese (2.049), Perugia (2.047), Como (2.005), Lecco (1.949), Cremona (1,879), Massa Carrara (1,780), Forlì-Cesena (1,769), Biella (1,740), Brescia (1,738), Bergamo (1,728), Vibo Valentia (1,723), Pescara (1,721), Ravenna (1,721), Chieti ( 1,715), Sondrio (1,651), Cuneo (1,642), Alessandria (1,626), Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (1,616), Teramo (1,585), Livorno (1,564), Trento (1,524), Treviso (1,524), Novara (1,512 ), Asti (1.498), Mantua (1.456), Verona (1.421), Naples (1.420), Turin (1.395), Rovigo (1.384), Trieste (1.384), Vicenza (1.366), Venice (1.344), Pordenone (1.308 ),Ferrara (1,294), Padua (1,283), Caserta (1,264), Vercelli (1,228), Rieti (1,216), Avellino (1,206), Bologna (1,203), Enna (1,192), Grosseto (1,180), Parma (1,142), Aosta (1,089), La Spezia (1,088), L'Aquila (1,080), Latina (1,028), Reggio nell'Emilia (1,020), Udine (1,010) and Piacenza (1,009).
The number of tampons went from 5,175,977 of the week 22-28 December to 6,487,127 of 29 December-4 January (+ 25.3%),
due to the increase in both rapid (+ 23.9%) and molecular (+ 28.8%). The positivity rate also spikes: from 28 December to 4 January the average rose from 2.8% to 8.2% for antigenic substances and from 15% to 24% for molecular products. "The enormous increase in viral circulation - explains the president Nino Cartabellotta - is due both to the spread of omicron and to the increase in social contacts during the holidays. The impact on hospitalizations and deaths will be visible in the coming weeks".
"The new measures are the result of political compromises, rather than a courageous strategy to combat the pandemic". They are "insufficient and late" and "continue to pursue the virus without a plan B to stem the wave of infections that risks leading to the default of hospital health services, as well as the de facto lockdown of the country". This is the comment of the president of the Gimbe Foundation Nino Cartabellotta, on the decree approved yesterday by the Council of Ministers. First of all, he explains, "the vaccination obligation limited to over 50s (which currently does not provide for sanctions) will have an unpredictable impact given that the number of exempt people is not known, and the super green pass for workers over 50 will be completely ineffective. in the short term, because it will come into force on February 15th ".Secondly, "safety measures in schools are insufficient to avoid the use of DAD and introduce complex and difficult rules to apply with public health services already overloaded". Again "smartworking is liquidated with the simple recommendation to 'make the best use of the flexibility already allowed by the rules in force". As for future scenarios, "the progressive expansion of an extremely contagious variant, despite causing a less severe disease, is rapidly overloading hospitals in recent weeks for three reasons". The narrative on the 'cooling' of the omicron variant, "to be confirmed with further field studies, lowers the alert level of the population". In this sentence "it is impossible to predict the times to reach the national peak of infections "but the measures implemented so far by the Government" have not caused any slowdown in the growth of cases ". Despite the revision of the quarantine rules," the enormous number of infections and their speed of growth risk paralyzing the country, which is heading towards a de facto lockdown ".
According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Ihme), an independent research center on global health of the University of Washington, in Italy the peak of deaths from Covid-19 could arrive in mid-February. According to IHME projections, there could be between 343 and 576 deaths per day in Italy, depending on the variables (use of the mask, severity of the Omicron variant, third doses and vaccination hesitation).
Meanwhile
, an alarm comes from the president of the Order of Doctors of Naples, Bruno Zuccarelli:
"The situation is critical, we need help now. Rome decides for a drastic measure".
So Zuccarelli after a confrontation with colleagues from the hospitals of Naples and the province.
"Neither in the aftermath of the first lockdown - he explains - nor in the 2nd and 3rd wave, the situation was so serious, now we risk losing control. What we decide today will take effect in 10-15 days. If we want to avoid the worst action immediately, do not put us in a position to have to apply the black code ", he concluded referring to the medical path to decide who to treat and who not.