Claudia Osmetti
A negative swab is no longer needed to get out of the covid quarantine. New year, new provisions. Those, specifically, just dictated by the Minister of Health Horace Schillaci and the subject of a circular made known in the last few hours. Let’s clarify it immediately because otherwise we get bogged down in an endless discussion: it only applies to asymptomatic people. For those who have no fever, no pain, at most a few sneezes as with theinfluenza. Here, in fact: the flu. Because the comparison is exactly this: except in the most serious cases, except for that general malaise that makes you stay in bed, under the covers, with the hot water bubble and the tachypirine on the bedside table, who was it (or is it , even more so today) in quarantine for the seasonal cold? Let’s be honest, none. And it’s not that on the flu front we are a nation of inconsiderate, imprudent and irresponsible people. But go. It has always been done this way, simply because there weren’t any big risks.
The same, under these conditions, now. It was expected in bill on rave parties and then the official confirmation arrives: «For those who have always been asymptomatic and for those who, in any case, have not had symptoms for at least two days, thehome isolation it will be able to end five days after the first positive test or the appearance of symptoms, regardless of whether the antigenic or molecular swab is carried out “, reads the ministerial document. Thank God: there are at least two excellent news. The first is that (net of what is happening in the airports of half of Europe and with the tiriamolla of the other half), if we were looking for a post-pandemic normalization, we have finally found it. Is that “living with the virus” which seemed like a mirage three years ago, so we put our arm into it in 2021, which we began to savor last year and which, now, has manifested itself in all respects.
The second good thing is that we must also have the honesty to tell the story to the end: there was no point in continuing with the rigidity of the emergency. To begin with, we were the only ones left, at least in the West (and the concept is always that of joint direction: if you don’t do things together, they make little sense). And then, in practice, the exact opposite ended up happening: that is, those who found themselves with those two damned temples on the swab but felt good (because Sars-cov2 is now less aggressive and because, let’s remember, we got vaccinated) played downwards. That is, it ended up in the pharmacy or at the ASL or from the general practitioner just right if there was some compelling need. Otherwise he managed the isolation in the living room by himself. The infections, weekly and even daily, have been estimated for a long time, in the sense that what the public (for heaven’s sake: very rightly) was able to trace was only a small part of the slice. The tip of the iceberg. At least a third of the infections were outside the lens, anyone underlined it virogolo or expert or infectious disease specialist since Covid appeared to upset our existence. And not to mention that, often, for reasons that lie in the name, the “asymptomatic” did not even know they had caught the virus. For all the others, that is «for the subjects immunosuppressed», explains Schillaci’s circular which gives the new indications, «the isolation can end after a minimum period of five days, but always necessarily following an antigen or molecular test with a negative result». That’s okay too, health first of all. Those who are more fragile, who are more at risk, must take more precautions. God forbid. And again: «For health workers, if they have been asymptomatic for at least two days, the isolation can end as soon as a test is negative».
The situation of those who “entered Italy from the People’s Republic of China in the seven days prior to the first positive test” is slightly different: however, here the horizon broadens and the decision (until now lacking by the EU and the suggestions that have so much caused a sensation by the ECDC, the Center for Disease Control in the Old Continent). They, the travelers coming from Beijing or Shanghai or Wuhan, “will be able to end the isolation after a minimum period of five days from the first positive test, if asymptomatic for at least two days and negative for a swab”. At the end of isolation, the use of Ffp2 masks for ten days remains mandatory for everyone and it is recommended to avoid high-risk people or crowded environments.
