Of Margaret DeBac
The Minister of Health Schillaci: mask obligation in hospitals and RSA until 30 April
There is no sign of a rise in cases in the weekly bulletin that will be released today. Indeed, the number of new positives seems to have dropped further compared to the update of December 22, when the notifications had already dropped by around 40mila compared to the previous picture. The data is collected by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) upon transmission by the Regions.
In Italy the effects of the jolt from China would not be visible before about ten days. For the moment, “there are no worrying signs” either in terms of epidemic or viral surveillance. Yesterday the mandatory swabs were taken in all Italian airports for passengers on flights from China, according to the order of the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci which will expire on January 31st. Anyone who tests positive must undergo a molecular swab and, if there is confirmation of positivity, go into fiduciary isolation until negativity is demonstrated with another test.
Children under 6 are exempt. Among the anti-Covid initiatives announced by Schillaci during the Senate briefing requested by the opposition, the minister mentioned the extension to April 30 of the obligation Of mask in health facilities public and private and in homes for the elderly. “We are monitoring closely. We periodically convene a control room with the Regions, the Ministry and the Iss». Today the meeting of the permanent crisis unit created in 2019 “to promptly identify acts and tools to reduce the risk of repetition of unfortunate events”.
Continue to keep under the unit theRtthe virus replication index, which remains inferior to the threshold that could lead to a rise in the curve. No abnormal filling signals in hospital wards. The sequencing of the viruses sampled at the Fiumicino and Malpensa airports did not reveal variants other than Omicron, our “tenant” for a year. The vast majority of the population is protected from it thanks to vaccines or by having contracted the natural infection. In Rome, detected from the first flight landed from Beijing 5 cases of positivity, all asymptomatic, out of 49 (10%) molecular swabs. From the second flight 26 out of 182 (14%).
The most feared variant is now Gryphon (indicated with the code XBB), a sub-lineage of Omicron, which in the USA has caused a surge in hospitalizations never recorded in 2021. It is the result of a mixing of different “pieces” of other sisters of Omicron: contains a mutation that would allow it to escape the defenses of the immune system more easily and would also be more transmissible. Its increased aggressiveness has not been proven. Here it has been traced 36 times by the ISS sequencing network. The World Health Organization is keeping an eye on her.
Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in the absence of complete data from China and a more precise assessment of the risks it is “understandable” that other countries act “to protect their populations”. Passenger screening has the purpose of identifying the «disembarkation» of new variants. The main defense is vaccination. An ISS study shows that “with the same age group and previous infection, it further reduces the risk of severe Covid-19 disease”. In other words, it’s worth getting an extra dose even if you’ve already had the infection.
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