Covid, 400 thousand cases reached in the region from 29 February 2020: one out of three inhabitants has been infected

UDINE. The days of the pandemic in Friuli Venezia Giulia are 852. And the infections, from the figure of 30 June 2022, exceed 400,000. A story almost two and a half years long, not yet over. A combination of surprise, fear, grief, controversy, worry, hope. When the region counts, since the beginning of the nightmare, about one positive for every three residents, the new wave is less frightening. Effect of a vaccination campaign that has reached 85% of the population and of a virus that has become “better”. June 30, 2022 is another stage. As in the past on February 29, 2020, the day of the first infection in Fvg.

And then on April 7, 2021 (100,000 infections), January 14, 2022 (200,000), February 17, 2022 (300,000). Very different distances because the pandemic trend has known waves and ebbs. It started with images from China, at the end of 2019, white overalls and hospital fans, it looked like a movie.

And we have reached today, with days of 2,000 cases per 24 hours, but hospital pressure not even comparable to those of recent months.

It all starts in Fvg on February 29 two years ago. The virus enters Treviso for the first time: a Gorizia goes to the hospital to visit a relative and is infected.

It will happen tens of thousands of times: the SARS-CoV-2 bounces like a pinball ball in homes, offices, factories. Impossible to stop it.

The frightening outbreak, at the beginning of March 2020, is that of the University of Udine: a Piedmontese auditor returning to his region has some symptoms, takes the test and finds it positive.

It will go like this for other participants in the conference: from Remanzacco, where the wife of a councilor infects her husband and, in turn, half a municipal council, to Prague.

It’s not normal pneumonia. When the virus develops the severe forms of Covid, there is a risk of dying. Especially if you are old and sick. Other than influence. On March 10, also in Fvg, the confinement is triggered: everyone at home, except for work and strict necessities.

We start swabs, the kids connect with the school via computer, we work from their place of residence, even the football championship stops.

And you put the mask on, everywhere. It is a world without kisses and hugs, but with sanitized hands. Then, with the vaccines, here is some light.

In Palmanova, on December 27, 2020, President Massimiliano Fedriga greets “a historic day”: the first administration of the drug to Ariella Breda, the doctor who identified the first case in the area.

The Fvg does not shine in the membership rankings, but little by little almost everyone gets vaccinated, the Trieste inhabitants a little less than the others. The city becomes the no vax capital when the dockers, dragged by Stefano Puzzer, contest what has become the pass to rebuild their social life: the Green pass.

To count 100,000 infections, 403 days are lined up. It will take 282 to get to 200,000 and only 34 more to go up to 300,000. Between January and February 2022 the virus runs like never before, because what is baptized Omicron is a very contagious variant, but which does not hurt that much, at least not like the previous ones.

Another 133 days pass with its sub-variants, from February 17 to yesterday, and here we are with 400,000 infections.

A number that does not exactly correspond to citizens, because someone, the virus, has taken it twice: according to the estimates of the Higher Institute of Health, in the last week the percentage of reinfections on the total reported cases is equal to 8.4 %, an increase compared to the previous week (7.5%).

But above all because in the last two months, since the contagion does not cause very serious consequences for health, more than someone manages it independently.

“There is a clear underestimation of the number of new cases, many are not reported because swabs are done at home”, confirms Franco Locatelli, president of the Higher Health Council. It’s not over, not yet. But vaccines, given the plummeting deaths, are a comforting shield.