With the recent increase in Covid infections in Italy, cases of pneumonia that require assisted ventilation have also returned: the new alarm
By: VirgilioNotizie | Posted on:
The Omicron 5 variant is causing Covid infections to spike in Italy. With the recent boom in cases, the staff of the Emergency Health Service 118 have noticed the return of episodes of pneumonia requiring assisted ventilation, for which the Omicron BA.5 sub-variant would be responsible.
The 118 alarm
To report the alarm raised by the national president of the Emergency Health Service 118, Mario Balzanelliis the ‘ANSA’ agency: “We are starting to see things we no longer saw: while previous versions of Omicron spared the lower airways, we are now starting to see pneumonia caused by Omicron BA.5, which manages to reach the alveoli pulmonary “.
Mario Balzanelli explained that “forms of viral pneumonia that require assisted ventilation” are being observed.
Mario Balzanelli also reported that in this period “very many completely asymptomatic people positive for the SarsCoV2 virus are found in the emergency room”. The national president of the Emergency Health Service and Medical Emergency 118 explained: “They are people who come to accompany minors or the elderly, or to make medications, and who have to swab as expected for anyone who arrives in an emergency room”. According to what reported by Balzanelli, it is a phenomenon that has been observed “for some weeks” and on which “unitary data are not yet available”, but which can be considered the index of a “very high viral circulation”.
Covid in Italy: the ISS report
From the last report of the National Institute of Health on Covid in Italy, the transmissibility index is still increasing (from 1.07 to 1.30) and the incidence of Covid cases (from 504 to 763). In addition, it was found that people not vaccinated against Covid-19, compared to those who have undergone vaccination, run a risk of up to 7 times greater of death and up to 4 times higher of hospitalization in intensive care.
The same report highlighted that in the last 7 days the cases of Covid reinfection have risen in Italy by 9.5%. Last week the increase was 8.4%. The ISS also indicated that, from August 24, 2021 to June 28, 2022, 587,347 cases of reinfection were reported.
Photo source: ANSA
Italian hospitals are considering the reopening of the Covid wards.
Are Italian hospitals reopening Covid wards?
Precisely in light of the increase in Covid cases in Italy, Italian hospitals are thinking about a possible reopening of Covid departments, waiting to evaluate the data that will emerge in the next 10-15 days. This was announced by the president of Fiaso (the Federation of Italian hospitals) John Best.
Photo source: ANSA