LECCE – Four deaths this week, the last one yesterday, all from Covid: the virus raises its head among the most fragile elderly and Fazzi’s intensive care unit has all the places occupied by positive over 65s. The sad bulletin, which has been thought less and less since the end of the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, has devastated ASL Lecce and Alberto Fedele, director of the Department of Prevention warns the elderly and chronically ill against the risks of a virus which by now has a benign evolution, but becomes lethal if it encounters an organism weakened in the immune system, with respiratory, oncological, cardiovascular pathologies. «The declaration of the end of the pandemic has not frightened the virus which continues to circulate – argues Fedele -, it is no coincidence that all health bodies: WHO, European ECDC, recommend that the elderly take one dose a year, as is the case for the flu shot. For frail subjects with chronic diseases, a dose every six months is recommended. Those with multiple chronic diseases must protect themselves. There are no magic wands, but the very small statistics of these days tell us that prevention is important. The people who died these days were 74, 75 years old and three of them had not taken the fourth dose. We have thirty percent coverage for the fourth dose, too low not to be exposed to risks ».
The last report elaborated by the Epidemiology and Statistics of ASL Lecce, directed by Fabrizio Quarta, is dated 3 February and showed a situation absolutely under control net of this backlash resulting from the guard that among the elderly is getting too low exposing them to risks that could be avoided. In any case, early February showed that the virus is in circulation, so much so that there were still 498 positives, not counting the asymptomatics who defy any calculation. The hospitalization rate for Covid clearly shows the role that vaccines play in fighting the disease. For every hundred thousand inhabitants, 4.02 are hospitalized every month who have had the first dose of the vaccine, 1.32 with the second dose, 2.95 with the third and as many as 3.7 for the unvaccinated. The data of a virus, that of Covid, which most affects Salento women remains unchanged: 54 percent against 46 percent.
Another fact that is confirmed concerns the higher mortality among the elderly despite the age group most affected by the infection being the under 60s. From this observation move the calls for the vaccination of the elderly who risk their lives most. The greatest place of exposure to contagion remains the family: 69 percent of cases of transmission of the virus occur in the family, 2 percent in rest homes, 2.7 percent in hospitals and health facilities in general, 8. 3 percent in the workplace.
The fourth dose is recommended for over 60s, from 12 years onwards if suffering from chronic or oncological pathologies, operators and guests of residential facilities for the elderly, healthcare workers, pregnant women. An additional booster dose with mRNA vaccine in the bivalent formulation is recommended for those who have already received a second booster dose with mRNA monovalent vaccine, once at least 120 days have passed since the first administration or since the last SARS- infection CoV-2 for which the date of the positive diagnostic test must be taken into account. This recall should be made for those aged 80 and over, by guests of residential facilities for the elderly, by 60-year-olds in a condition of fragility motivated by chronic pathologies. In any case, the possibility of a further dose of vaccine, after the administration of the second booster, can be administered by all over-60s.