With the end of the state of emergency and the elimination of some restrictions, on April 1, Italy entered a new pandemic phase, that of coexistence with the coronavirus. Can we therefore say that we are out of the pandemic nightmare? Looking at the new infections (undoubtedly underestimated) and the number of daily deaths, which at the time of writing does not show signs of falling below a hundred, it would seem not.
Therefore, if it is true that vaccines have contributed to making us return to a climate of semi-normality, it is equally true that we must keep our guard up and avoid singing victory too soon: the 2022 Plan in response to COVID-19 (COVID- 19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan) drawn up by the WHO gives some advice in this regard, recalling the importance of protecting the most vulnerable and thoroughly investigating the long-term consequences of the contagion.
Variants and vaccine immunity. Two aspects that prevent a definitive sigh of relief are on the one hand the decline in vaccination immunity (which, we are seeing, is already contributing to an increase in the number of infected persons), on the other hand the spread of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant. , more contagious than the “sister” BA.1, and the possible emergence of new variants that could make a leap backward in the pandemic calendar.
Protect the weakest. Based on the WHO Covid Response Plan, Hans Kluge, the organization’s regional director for Europe, explains how our continent should behave at this stage. The first step is to protect the most vulnerable people, who will be the most affected by the decrease in vaccination coverage; to do this, it is necessary to continue to use some prevention measures (such as indoor masks), continue the vaccination campaign and identify infections as soon as possible, as well as keeping health systems on alert so that they can provide a quick response in case of increase in the number of hospitalizations.
Watch out for variants and LONG COVID. To block the spread of new variants in the bud, it is then necessary to identify as soon as possible any mutations of the viral genome that substantially alter its characteristics, improving the current surveillance and monitoring systems of the virus.
Another aspect to investigate is that of long covid, a set of disorders that sometimes last for months and affect many people recovered from covid (also contracted in a mild form). “We still don’t know why or how long covid affects some people,” explains Kluge. “In 2022 this must change: we cannot forget that 10-20% of people who continue to have persistent symptoms even 12 weeks after the end of the infection”.