The epidemic curve in Italy is still decreasing. Today there are 51,208 new Covid cases, against 68,170 yesterday but above all the 67,817 of last Sunday. The swabs carried out are 262,032 (yesterday 350,630) with a positivity rate that rises slightly from 19.4% to 19.5%. The deaths in the last 24 hours are 77 (yesterday 116) for a total of 170,875 victims since the beginning of the pandemic. Intensive care is slightly down, 3 fewer (yesterday +3): in all there are 405 with 28 admissions of the day. On the other hand, the number of ordinary hospitalizations is increasing: they are 68 less (yesterday -87), for a total of 10,925. This is what emerges from the daily bulletin of the Ministry of Health.
Used 10% of 600 thousand antivirals purchased
So far only 10% of the 600,000 cycles of antiviral drugs purchased in Italy for anti-Covid-19 therapy have been used and those not prescribed will expire within the year. “Yet it would be really useful if they were prescribed in this phase of the epidemic, in which there is coexistence with the virus and everything is open without limits, hospitalizations are rising slightly and the number of deaths is rising again”, he said. the virologist told ANSA Francesco Broccolo, of the University of Milano Bicocca. “At this stage he wonders why antiviral drugs are not being used adequately, given that 600,000 cycles have been purchased, which to date just under 60,000 have been used, about 10%, and that in less than 6 months they will all expire, “he added. “The problem – according to the virologist – is that these drugs must be administered within 5 days of the onset of symptoms and are indicated to treat mild and moderate forms”. Instead, it often happens that “general practitioners tend to prescribe them when symptoms are severe” and “in hospitals the administration is very low because patients usually arrive 5 days after the onset of symptoms”.
The contagion index Rt drops to 1
The Rt contagion index has dropped to 1, ie it is at the epidemic threshold level as it was at the beginning of June 2022. This is indicated by the research groups that calculate the indices equivalent to the RT elaborated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità , but with techniques that allow for more up-to-date values. The physicists, epidemiologists and statisticians of the CovidTrends site indicate that the index equivalent to RT, called Covindex, is 1.0; the CovidStat site of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Infn) indicates the value 1.01, intermediate between 1.05 and 0.97; the physicist Roberto Battiston, of the University of Trento, indicates on his website “Rt falling below 1.0 at national level”, with the value 1.04 as of July 17.