Omicron 2 deadly for unvaccinated elderly
Omicron 2 more contagious, but better? Not for all. “Omicron BA.2”, a sub-variant of Sars-CoV-2 now dominant in the world, “is as deadly as previous variants when infections occur in unvaccinated elderly.” This was underlined by the American cardiologist and scientist Eric Topol, director and founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, professor of Molecular Medicine, on the basis of a study conducted in Hong Kong and published on the MedRxiv pre-print platform.
To analyze the effects of Omicron 2, Hong Kong is a special observatory. A sort of open-air laboratory, considering that the autonomous territory of Southeast China recorded “in the first 2 years of the pandemic” just “12,631 confirmed cases of Covid-19 with 213 deaths”, recall the authors of the work, a team of University of Hong Kong. The real tsunami the island did not experience like most of the planet in early 2020, but in early 2022, when “an important wave sustained mainly by Omicron BA.2.2 – the researchers report – caused over 1.1 million Sars-CoV-2 infections with more than 7,900 deaths ». On Facebook Topol therefore highlights how valuable is «the experience of Hong Kong with BA.2», concerning precisely «a population with a previous low exposure» to the virus.
Well, “our data – explain the scientists – have indicated” for Omicron 2, compared to other variants of the pandemic Coronavirus, “shorter” values for 3 parameters: “The incubation period; the serial interval “, that is the time that passes between the symptoms of an infected person and those of a person that this infected person infects, and” the time of generation of infections “, that is the period that elapses between the contagion of a primary infector and that of the cases that derive from him. “However, patients infected with Omicron BA.2.2 without having undergone a full primary course of anti-Covid vaccination”, the authors add, “appeared to have a similar mortality risk to those infected in previous waves with the ancestral strain” of Sars-CoV-2.
Puglia: 19 deaths and 5,277 cases, 18.3% of the tests
Today in Puglia there are 5,277 new cases of Coronavirus infection out of 28,835 tests (incidence of 18.3%) and 19 deaths. Of the 101,285 people currently positive, 610 are hospitalized in a non-critical area (yesterday 630) and 29 in intensive care (yesterday 30). Since the beginning of the pandemic, the total cases in Puglia, to date, are more than one million: 1,002,188.
Emilia Romagna: 4,656 new positives and 11 deaths
Since the start of the Coronavirus epidemic, 1,352,490 positive cases have been recorded in Emilia-Romagna, 4,656 more than yesterday, out of a total of 20,838 swabs performed in the last 24 hours, of which 9,246 molecular and 11,592 antigen tests quick. Overall, the percentage of new positives on the number of tampons made is 22.3 percent. Eleven deaths.