Covid, Costa: 'Monitor but without alarmism'. Sileri: 'Cases will rise and more waves but limited by vaccines'

The cases of Covid "will certainly increase and we will also have other waves in addition to this summer, we will have seasonal epidemics. The virus has not disappeared and there will be waves that are increasingly limited in terms of duration, quantity and severity of symptoms, because obviously they will occur among vaccinated people" .

Thus

stressing that we are in a country "which today is largely vaccinated or has encountered the virus or has the vaccine-encounter combination with the virus".

So, "what will the photo be in 2023? We will have updated vaccines and a passage of the virus that among vaccinated people will cause very little damage".

Therefore, explained Sileri on the sidelines of the conference 'The Health that I would like' at the Ministry of Health, "it is a transition from pandemic to endemic and, as happens with flu viruses, there will be epidemics as happens in the winter period for the influence and we will have some upsurge in a population that is however largely protected ".

The epidemic trend must however "obviously be evaluated carefully and we must push on booster vaccinations for those who have not yet done so,

"It is clear that once the SarsCoV2 virus circulates more, the mask limits the infection; therefore my advice is to use it where there is a crowd and crowds - said Sileri -. Keeping it on the beach seems crazy to me, but it goes kept on transport where it is still mandatory and maybe you take a plane; yesterday I took it and kept it even if it wasn't mandatory. But I certainly wouldn't put it in a restaurant or at the seaside. " 

"We must not confuse prudence with fear".

The trend of Covid-19 must be "monitored but without transmitting messages of too much concern or alarmism" because "the situation is currently under control", said

speaking on SkyTg24.

According to Costa "if the goal is to live with the virus then we must learn to live with the positives. I think we must focus more on the symptomatic than on the positives. Continuing to look for the positives is not the right strategy", underlining that the numbers in the hospitals "are well below" the thresholds. 

"We have always said - added the undersecretary - that exiting the state of emergency did not mean exiting a pandemic. The virus is still circulating" and the increase in infections is "I think it is normal if we consider that, in our country, for days now, there are no more restrictions and therefore there are more opportunities for meetings and social moments, hence the conditions that favor an increase in infections ".

The undersecretary then wanted to clarify his position on the end of isolation for positives: "If the goal is to get to coexistence with the virus, this also means having many positives circulating. I am referring to asymptomatic and vaccinated positives. what will be the most appropriate time, we have to get there gradually. "

"On the other hand - Costa observed - when someone catches the flu and has mild symptoms they don't always stay at home".

For the undersecretary, therefore, "living with the virus means living with the positives", also considering that "every day about 2.3 million citizens are in isolation, but I think that just as many circulate unknowingly without knowing that they are positive. the right strategy is to continue looking for the positives. I believe that we must focus more on the symptomatic, which still require prudence and perhaps still isolation ".