The impact of the pandemic on hospitals continues to diminish. In the week 2-8 February, according to the monitoring of the Gimbe Foundation, there was a reduction of 7.7% in hospitalizations in ordinary wards and 11.2% in intensive care. The incidence also decreased. The figure for 10 February is 1,032 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 1,362 the previous week.
Sicily returns to the yellow zone
And the first effects on the color picture of the regions are beginning to be registered. The weekly monitoring of the ISS should certify the transition of Sicily from orange to yellow (probably from Monday 14 February), thanks to 14 consecutive days of intensive care stably below the critical threshold of 20% (we are at 13.7%, while hospitalizations in ordinary wards are still 35.6%). Molise is getting worse as it passes from the white to the yellow zone. Only Umbria and Basilicata remain in the white band.
Lombardy towards the white zone in two weeks
But the data is improving in almost all regions. Piedmont (orange) has yellow zone numbers from February 2 and in a week can aspire to a change of color, as do Abruzzo and Val d’Aosta (with “yellow” numbers from January 30). Not only. The improving picture on the hospitalization front brings the return to the white area of Lombardy closer. The intensive care occupancy rate is constantly decreasing and touches the critical threshold of 10% (we are at 10.1%) below which the white zone is triggered. With two weeks of white strip numbers, the color change is made official. Not far away is the return to the white zone also of the Veneto, where the percentage of Covid patients admitted to intensive care fell to 11.4 percent.
Towards the recalculation of hospitalizations
After all, Italy is destined to turn more and more white or yellow and less and less orange if, as requested by the Regions, the counting of Covid patients alone will decide the color change and not (as is now the case) also of the patients in hospital for causes other than Coronavirus who test positive for the SarsCoV2 virus but are asymptomatic. The Ministry of Health has opened to recalculation. And an ad hoc measure from the government is expected.