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After ten weeks of decline, the Coronvirus infection curve in Europe has started to rise again. So much so that WHO has raised the risk of a new wave, the fourth, of the pandemic: “It will be there before the autumn if we do not remain disciplined,” said the director of the World Health Organization.
There are, second Hans Kluge, “all three conditions” for yet another storm “of deaths and excess hospital pressure due to Covid-19”. And the conditions are above all “the increase in social contacts” for “the resumption of travel and gatherings and the relaxation of restrictions” which caused “a 10% increase in cases in the Old Continent last week”.
The spread of the Delta variant, which moves and is transmitted rapidly, also weighs on the new infections. Portugal has already reintroduced the curfew and in the United Kingdom, where the virus mutation was detected for the first time in Europe, a new peak has been reached: 27,989 cases in 24 hours, even if the number of tampons is very high and hospitalizations and victims remain contained.
Video: “We want to improve Europe” (Mediaset)
However, the WHO is looking forward with concern: in August, explains Kluge, Delta will become prevalent. The weapon to combat it are vaccines since “the evidence shows that two doses of any of the drugs approved by the EMA (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, J&J) also protect against the variant” and “the heterologous vaccination strategy has been shown to be successful “. But this is precisely the point: for the WHO director, despite the efforts of governments, vaccination coverage in Europe is “unacceptable” and far from the recommended quota of 80% of the population, especially as regards health personnel and Senior citizens.
In Italy 88.2% of doctors and nurses are already immune and so are 86.5% of over 80s and 57.5% of 70s, while more than half are still in their 60s without double administration. Yesterday’s bulletin tells of 882 infections and 21 deaths, 12 regions without victims and decreasing hospitalizations in ordinary wards and intensive care. Today, the new ISS and Ministry of Health flash survey dedicated to the Delta variant is expected, which for now stands at around 10% in some large regions such as Lazio and Lombardy.
Hence the appeal of the President of the Regions, Massimiliano Fedriga, to act in advance “by enhancing sequencing and tracing and implementing screening strategies for those arriving from abroad”. Commissioner Francesco Figliuolo, however, ensures that the vaccine race will not suffer setbacks: “We will continue to guarantee 500,000 doses per day because the RNA doses will remain the same” he promised from Umbria.