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Almost a million Italians risk spending Christmas in bed, due to Covid and the flu. The Sars-Cov-2 infection is pressing Italians with higher numbers of sick people and with a rise in hospitalizations and deaths. The peak expected for the Christmas period is fully associated with that of the flu with the risk of overlapping infections and the forecast of around 900 thousand Italians in bed due to at least one of the two viruses. This is why, especially for the elderly – those most at risk for serious illnesses and deaths – it is still crucial to get vaccinated: in recent days open days have been activated in various cities.
Family doctors: Covid surpasses the flu
«In our clinics we are seeing many more cases of Covid, overtaking the flu. We can estimate that 55% of the acute pathologies that come to our attention concern Sars-Cov-2 against which the requests for vaccines are also growing significantly. A little less than 40% concerns the flu, the remainder concerns other circulating infections”, warns Silvestro Scotti, national secretary of the Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg). «The lower incidence of influenza is probably linked to the fact that there has been greater adherence to vaccination against the seasonal virus», he adds. For virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco who predicts almost a million Italians in bed with a virus for Christmas «we are in a growth phase of all infections, especially respiratory ones. Especially the H1n1 virus is constantly growing and Covid is also much more contagious but better, although not too much. Above all, these latest cases are underestimated, because the swab is not carried out”, continues Pregliasco who explains how “despite the slight stop last week, the data on hospital occupancy, hospitalizations and deaths is also growing and causing concern”.
Elderly people still at risk: hospitalizations and deaths rise
As regards Covid «the generally mild symptoms and mainly affecting the upper respiratory tract are rhinitis, irritable cough, pharyngitis, laryngitis, low-grade fever, which characterize the majority of subjects affected by the latest subvariants of Omicron currently in circulation and keep the alert in the case of the most fragile subjects”, as explained by the Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (Simg) and the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit). Furthermore, symptoms can easily be confused with those of the flu. This is a mix that is starting to worry, even given the poor adherence to vaccination. And for this reason, in view of the Christmas holidays when there will be greater opportunities for aggregation, the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci has renewed the invitation to get immunized, especially in the case of the elderly and frail. The bulletins on Covid tell of a situation in hospitals that is largely under control but with growing hospitalizations (7426 in medical departments and 240 in intensive care) and deaths, almost all among the very elderly, which in the month of November almost reached the thousand mark ( there are around 300 per week)
The opportunity for open days to get vaccinated
Faced with a vaccination campaign that continues to be slow – especially that of Covid which has so far seen only 1.5 million Italians vaccinated and among these only 10% of the over 80s – the Ministry of Health with the director of Prevention Francesco Vaia urged the opening before the open day parties to get vaccinated with free access and which also provides for those who want the co-administration of the two vaccines. Here are some: in Rome, for example, one is planned in various vaccination centers in the capital on December 23rd and then on the weekends of the Epiphany (January 6th and 7th) and January 20-21st. In Basilicata, the opening hours of the vaccination centers in Matera and Policoro are extended on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd December. Open days will also take place in Alto Adige in December (for the dates: www.insieme-piu-forti.it). In Tuscany in recent days the Region and Local Health Authority have prepared the expansion of the normal offer of vaccination centres, extending the opening hours of those already active in the provincial capitals and guaranteeing the activation of at least one vaccination point in the district areas. In Parma, however, the 240 places made available for the two open days, organized in the city and in Fidenza, sold out in just a few hours. For this reason, the Local Health Authority is organizing new open days, which will be communicated in the next few days.