COVID: the DELTA VARIANT is now DANGEROUS for ITALY too, the EXPERTS say. THE SYMPTOMS of the DISEASE
It’s confirmed: the delta variant (former Indian variant) is more contagious and leads more to hospitalization.
The periodic analysis of Public Health England (PHE), published last June 3, found that this mutation of COVID, which has become prevalent in Great Britain, is about the 50% more transmissible than the Alfa variant (formerly English) and increased the risk of hospitalization by 2.5 times.
Among the experts, there is a veil of concern also for Italy.
Anna Teresa Palamara, director of the ISS Infectious Diseases Department, explained:“From our epidemiological surveillance, emerge a rapidly changing picture which confirms that also in our country, as in the rest of Europe, the Delta variant of the virus is becoming prevalent. In fact, a report shows that the percentage of sequenced cases is increasing passing in constant way from 0.5% of cases diagnosed in January, to 2.5% of cases diagnosed in the first half of June, according to the data available on the platform “.
He also spoke on the subject Franco Locatelli, coordinator of the Cts and President of the Superior Health Council: “It’s important to work in the most intensive way on tracing and genotyping and sequencing approaches because only in this way will we be able to accurately intercept any signals of important diffusion of the Indian variant. We are in line with the European average on sequencing. There are countries like the United Kingdom that have a more pushed activity but it is important that any decisions follow this activity in Italy. Depending on the evidence that we will eventually have decisions can be made to try to contain everything. Because if it doesn’t happen, sequencing becomes a beautiful academic exercise, but with little impact on public health. We need to track and make reflections where clusters should be created. At the moment the country is white but woe to let your guard down, he concluded, we are in a more favorable situation and we can now evaluate different numbers than in the past. But the problem is not overcome “.
In short, anything could happen, from the mini lockdown to the red areas.
Even more pessimistic it is Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the State University of Milan, medical director of the Galeazzi Institute in Milan, according to which‘Italy will experience a new surge in cases precisely because of the Delta mutation, as compared to what is happening in England we are behind and we must expect a tail blow from the epidemic.
What the professor said makes us think: “The variants identified are now 700, some have minor differences, but the worrying ones are 4. Others are under observation. And the Indian variant, the Delta, which mixed with the South African one has also become Delta plus, is more contagious and a little nastier. In England, who was the first to open everything and let the virus run, the variant is causing 15,000 cases per day. But the deaths are between 10 and 20. Not the average of 300 per day as in the past “.
But what are the symptoms of the delta variant? As reported in the newspaper The messenger, the main ones seem to be cough, cold, headache, sore throat, temperature, muscle aches, diarrhea, fatigue e exhaustion, usually stronger than those of the classic version coronavirus. And, consequently, the healing times are also extended.
As for the vaccines, resistance to this variant has yet to be demonstrated. According to initial data from Israel, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
it is partially effective against the former Indian variant and early neutralization tests on the Indian Covaxin vaccine also showed a good response.
According to the virologist Giovanni Maga, director of the Institute of molecular genetics of the Cnr of Pavia, “There is a study by an Indian group in which researchers show that the investigational Indian vaccine protects against this variant, and is a similar vaccine to the Chinese one, based on the inactivated virus. The study is currently under review for publication but the data have already been made available on a public database so that the scientific community could already evaluate them “.
For more information on the DELTA VARIANT in ITALY, we invite you to view the VIDEO up here.
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