STOP – After a December of diseases in a flurry, with the flu reaching unprecedented peaks of intensity, moreover well in advance of past years, 2023 now seems to be experiencing a stalemate. Family doctors and emergency rooms are preparing for the next and foreseeable assault, squeezed between the Australian flu and the return of the Covid. The peak arrived in the middle of last month and in the following weeks the descent began, but very gradually.
Lessons
The Christmas holidays from schools, given that the Australian girl hit the pediatric range with particular frequency, contributed to the drop. There is still some concern among doctors for the queue relating to parties. Lunches, dinners and parties between Christmas and New Year’s Eve have clearly favored aggregation and created opportunities for gatherings both outdoors and indoors. For the moment, pending official reports, there does not seem to be an extraordinary turnout in the medical and pediatric clinics, which instead experienced “explosive” weeks in December.
The areas
Fermo and the Marches remain among the areas where the seasonal flu has hit the hardest. At Christmas, our region was the only one, together with Abruzzo and Val d’Aosta, to rank in the range of maximum intensity, the one above 18 infected per 1000 assisted, a threshold exceeded for 4 consecutive weeks. The most affected children from 0 to 4 years. In all age groups, from infancy to the very old. In all, the flu vaccination has seen around 30 thousand doses administered in the fifth province of the Marches. And in parallel with the flu, the alert for Covid remains present. Fortunately, the times of the bogeyman that stopped the world are long gone, but the virus continues to circulate and at present in Fermano, as of yesterday’s data, there were 820 positives, distributed fairly evenly throughout the provincial territory. The Ast commissioner Roberto Grinta, for now, does not need special plans to deal with the emergency.
The results
The impact on hospitals, “both in ordinary wards and in intensive care, remains stable and quite contained”, as communicated by the health company. Since the new year, the state provisions on the treatment of isolation have changed, which have further loosened the links of controls. Now for at least two days asymptomatic people don’t even need a negative swab anymore, after at least 5 days of positivity, to conclude isolation. A condition that applies to everyone, except immunosuppressed subjects and healthcare workers. The latest regulations are causing a drop in swabs in the laboratory and pharmacy, while the use of DIY is growing. Many, in the absence of symptoms, buy a tampon at the pharmacy to monitor themselves independently before returning to normal life.
On the front of Covid vaccinations, times and sessions of the past months have been confirmed in Fermano. The former hospital of Montegranaro remains open every Saturday morning, as a point of reference for the entire province, while for the mountain area there is Amandola, on Thursdays from 8 to 9, with direct access without booking. The fourth dose did not break through, which is around 20% of the population that can be vaccinated.