In recent weeks "hospitalizations in the under 19 age group are increasing: cases have gone from 1,024,963 on 28 December to 1,182,094 on 5 January, and in the same period of one week the hospitalizations have passed from 9423 to 10,082, or over 600 more, intensive care from 263 to 268 and the deceased from 35 to 36 ".
The president of the Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip), Annamaria Staiano, notes this to ANSA.
In the 6-11 year range, he states, "cases pass for the same period from 343,634 to 392,040, hospitalizations from 1605 to 1711, therefore over 100 more in 7 days, intensive from 38 to 39 and deaths 9".
"The number of children in the 5-11 age group who received the first dose of the anti-Covid vaccination rose to 16.72%, equal to 611 thousand out of 3.5 million children for this audience. They are growing but still few, not enough , and more should be done to encourage immunization in this category also by aiming for targeted communication ".
Thus to ANSA the president of the Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip) Annamaria Staiano, who in any case underlines the strong gap between the Regions and notes how promoting vaccination within schools could represent an additional option.
According to Staiano, "a strong difference emerges between the Regions, with Puglia accounting for 30% of vaccinated children, Lombardy at 20% and, in the last places, Campania with 12% and Sicily with 11. % ". The start of vaccination for the 5-11 age group, he underlines, "however also coincided with the Christmas holidays and many parents were rather wait-and-see and tried to postpone immunization in view of the holidays. However, there are also some perplexities. part of the parents that must be overcome ". Faced with the novelty of being able to vaccinate younger children ", for example - explains the president of the Italian Society of Pediatrics - the false news that children were vaccinated to protect adults, this is absolutely not true and it must be reiterated that the vaccine has a91% efficacy in preventing contagion among children themselves ".
According to Staiano, a solution to incentivize vaccination, also simplifying the process, could be to foresee that vaccination could possibly take place in the schools themselves, even if "I think - he specifies - that we need to have various possibilities and the school would be an additional option, but maintaining the Hub system ". In Puglia, for example, "hub schools have been selected and pediatricians, together with hygienists and nurses, go to these schools chosen as hubs to vaccinate in collaboration with school offices, they are 'vaccination teams'". In any case, she concludes, "I am convinced that parents will progressively vaccinate their children more and more, also thanks to the close relationship of trust with pediatricians,and I think that a higher level of coverage will soon be reached for this segment ".