TREVISO – The flu won’t let go. In the last week alone, over 42 thousand Venetians were forced to bed with fever, even if this is not always present, cough, headache and sore throat. And the infections are also complicating things in hospitals, where to cover the gaps, overtime is often multiplied, the number of times available increased, and holidays and permits are reviewed. The hospitals in the province of Treviso, for example, have almost 200 employees who are absent precisely because they are affected by the flu virus or by Covid. Specifically, 7 specialist doctors and 184 employees including nurses, operators, technicians and so on are on sick leave. Setbacks that are added by the now known shortage of white coats and health professionals in general. Finding replacements for a few days, then, is essentially impossible. So all that remains is to grit your teeth once again. «At the moment, the data that most worries us is precisely that of absences among the staff. Francesco Benazzi, director general of the Treviso area’s Local Health Authority, takes stock. The diseases are distributed in the various sectors. As a result we didn’t have to reorganize or even close services. But obviously in these conditions it takes a bit of effort».
IN AN EMERGENCY
The hope is that the predictions are respected. The peak seasonal flu is expected to end on January 20. That means another week in the trenches. Then you should go back to seeing the light again. Regional monitoring confirms that the incidence is decreasing: the latest report speaks of 8.81 cases for every thousand residents. And hospital wards are no longer as full as they are at Christmas time. Today in the Marca facilities there are 102 patients hospitalized for flu and coronavirus. In detail, 26 people are battling severe forms of seasonal flu, which often add to already precarious clinical pictures. And another 76 are hospitalized for Covid (40 in Treviso, 11 between Montebelluna and Castelfranco and 25 in Vittorio Veneto). “They entered the hospital with the coronavirus infection as the first diagnosis,” specifies the director general of the Local Health Authority. In fact, there is now a tendency to exclude from the total count people hospitalized for other reasons who then also test positive for the coronavirus, without any type of respiratory symptom. Covid by chance, the latter are defined, however welcomed in the areas of the wards dedicated to isolation. In general, the Rt address remains below 1, the threshold beyond which the Covid epidemic would expand exponentially again. Now the average value stands at 0.81.
FEW SWAMPS
The Covid points in the Treviso area continue to perform an average of 700 swabs a day. “However, we must pay attention to the data on the trend, warns Benazzi also because, especially during the holiday season, many people have done without tampons”. What is certain is that, thanks to the desire to avoid isolation, there is no longer the rush of the past to test for the coronavirus. The attention remains particularly high instead in the airports. Including Marco Polo of Venice, Canova of Treviso and Catullo of Verona. Since the end of last year, all passengers from China have to be tested, even if they have previously made a stopover elsewhere. For its part, the Treviso Local Health Authority has already reopened the Covid Hotel of the former Guicciardini in Valdobbiadene as a precaution.