The specter of a ninth wave from Covid-19 extends over France. And not only. According to data from Santé Publique France, last Friday there were 48,629 new cases registered across the Alps against 33,177 cases the previous Friday, equal to an increase of 46%. Over 4,500 hospitalizations in the last seven days. “The famous Rt, the reproduction rate of Covid, has been higher than 1 for several days, this means that the incidence of the number of cases is increasing: we are at the beginning of a more or less exponential curve”, he declared to the France agency Presse the virologist Pascal Crépey, of the Ecole des hautes études de santé publique. The French premier, Elisabeth Borne, has launched a “solemn appeal” to respect the protective measures (“we wear the mask as soon as we are with vulnerable people or in crowded areas such as public transport”) to face a “new wave” of coronaviruses. Several experts believe that “a ninth wave is forming in France and more generally in Europe, Southeast Asia and North America”
Japan, eighth wave is coming: infections are increasing
While in China there are signs of easing of anti-Covid measures in Guangzhou, the capital of wealthy Guangdong, where in recent days there have been new clashes between residents and police over draconian restrictions to fight a wave of infections, infections from Covid growing again in Japan with the country officially – according to what was declared by the National Association of Doctors – is confronted with the eighth wave of the virus. The upsurge of the coronavirus comes once again after the Japanese government launched a subsidy program for residents to boost domestic tourism, and lifted the limit on foreign tourist arrivals at borders. According to a study by the Nagoya Institute of Technology, it is expected that in mid-January infections in Japan could exceed the peak reached in August, when more than 260,000 cases were recorded daily.
Fauci: we are still in a pandemic, it’s not over
That we are still in the midst of a pandemic, with 300-400 deaths a day in the USA, is confirmed by Anthony Fauci, the top immunologist who is leaving the leadership of the US National Institute of Infectious Diseases in these days. “We can forget it’s over, right now as we head into winter,” he added, launching a strong appeal to “do everything possible to mitigate the surge in covid cases”. “It is terribly frustrating – he explained – to see how little people are getting vaccinated with the new booster, we are only between 11-15% of the population”.
Fiaso, new leap in hospitalizations in Italy: +19.5% in 7 days
In Italy there is a new leap in Covid hospitalizations: in the last week they have grown by 19.5%. The survey of 29 November was carried out among the sentinel hospitals belonging to the Fiaso network. This is the second week of double-digit growth: an increase of 24% had already been recorded in the report dated November 23rd. In particular, patients in ordinary Covid wards increased by 20%, while intensive care units recorded a smaller increase of 9%.
Also signs of optimism
But in Italy there are also optimistic elements. Massimo Ciccozzi, head of the Molecular Epidemiology Research Unit of the Campus Bio-medico University of Rome, says that Covid “is adapting more and more to us”, the Cerberus subvariant is less contagious than Omicron 5, even if it is necessary to be always ready in the event of new, more fearsome variants of Omicron.