Covid has raised its head: in the last 24 hours there have been 120,683 infections and 176 deaths: the highest figure since last March 8. With 519,284 swabs, the positivity rate is 23.2%, a very slight increase (yesterday it was 23%). Admissions in ordinary wards increased (+127 for a total of 10,975), while hospitalizations in intensive wards decreased (-4 for a total of 413).
Yesterday the infected had been 31,205, but it was the swabs carried out on Sunday. The dead had been 112 and had passed the 170,000 mark since the start of the pandemic.
Today in Lombardy there are 18,180 new cases, in Campania 14,585 and in Veneto 12,477. Lazio has also exceeded 10 thousand new infections (10,219), while Puglia is at 9,857. The currently positive in Italy are 1.45 million, 1,454 less than yesterday.
The Centaurus variant for the moment is not spreading
The variant of Omicron BA.2.75, christened on social media Centaurus “is a ‘scariant” according to Eric Topol, American scientist director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. Topol dusts off in a tweet a term he himself coined: a fusion between scary (frightening) and variant (variant).
Topol reports that the data is reassuring for now: “It is not spreading anywhere beyond a couple of provinces in India where it does not have to compete with BA.5.” In conclusion, Topol reflects, “there will be other new variants to worry about, but BA.2.75 doesn’t appear to be one of them.”
WHO: in Europe cases tripled and hospitalizations doubled
The “current situation” of Covid-19 is that “the European region has seen new cases triple in the last 6 weeks, with nearly 3 million infections reported last week, accounting for nearly half of all new cases globally. . While Covid-related hospitalization rates have doubled over the same period, ICU admissions so far have remained relatively low. ” To trace the picture is Hans Kluge, director of the Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe, in a note. Although the numbers of ICUs remain “relatively low” at the moment, Kluge adds that “however, as infection rates in older groups continue to rise, Europe continues to see nearly 3,000 people dying from Covid every week”.
Agenas: intensive employment rooms and departments at 5% and 17%
The percentage of places in non-critical area hospital wards occupied by patients with Covid-19 rises by one percentage point over 24 hours in Italy, reaching 17%. The percentage of intensive care units occupied by Covid patients also increased by one point, rising to 5%. This is what emerges from the data of the National Agency for Regional Health Services (Agenas) of 18 July, published today. Both values were at 2% exactly one year ago.
Rezza: “Yesterday I had the fourth dose, the coupon had expired”
“Yesterday I had the fourth dose of Covid vaccine. I make it known because we are often told that we give this advice to others, not to wait. I think we can start revaccinating ourselves now. In my case, the latest Covid vaccination l ‘I had done in October, the coupon had “expired”. Thus the director general of prevention of the ministry of health, Giovanni Rezza.
Burioni: “Don’t mock those who wear a mask outdoors, they could be fragile”
“Today wearing the mask outdoors is an excess of protection. But don’t mock the wearer.
It could be a transplant recipient, an immunosuppressed person, a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy, a frail person. They do well to protect themselves as much as possible. “The virologist explains on Twitter Roberto Burionilecturer at the Vita Salute San Raffaele University in Milan.
Europe buys another 2.25 million ampoules of antiviral
The European Authority for Health Emergency Preparedness and Response has signed a new contract to supply up to 2.25 million vials of the anti-Covid Veklury (remdesivir) treatment with pharmaceutical company Gilead. This is the second framework contract for this therapy, the first expired in April 2022. 22 Member States and EU countries participate in the joint tender.
“Covid is still with us – commented the EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides – but we will continue to ensure that, in addition to vaccines, we will also have the necessary therapies. “The European Commission has already entered into framework contracts for the purchase of monoclonal antibodies for Covid therapies with Hoffmann-La Roche and GlaxoSmithKline.