Rome 13, January 2022 – Less than 24 hours from the control room that will sanction the new ones colors of the regions, certifying in all probability the return of the orange zone in Italy, check the hypothesis of changing the rules of engagement. To open the gate the Lombardy which yesterday officially proposed to the Ministry of Health not to count as hospitalizations due to Covid those of patients hospitalized for other diseases and then positive results. The message is clear: not all hospitalized with Covid are in hospital for the virus. The Region currently has the largest number of hospitalized with Sars CoV-2 in intensive care (253) and in ordinary wards (3,317), with percentages close to orange (17% in resuscitation and above the threshold in the medical area with 32%). Calabria, Sicily and Piedmont they could leave the yellow zone from Monday 17 January, the rules remain unchanged. AND at least four other regions are close to exceeding the parameters. It remains to be seen whether the forward flight of Lombardy will be shared by the other governors and will end up in black and white in the letter to be sent to the ministry and ISS with the requests for easing the measures.
The Lombard Welfare Directorate, in putting forward the question on the recount, wrote that it will serve to “give a more realistic and objective representation of the pressure on hospitals caused by Covid”. From Friday, the Region will again give the total number of positive patients but “will be able to distinguish within the ‘Covid positive hospitalizations, which hospitalizations refer directly to a’ Covid-dependent ‘disease (pneumonia and severe respiratory failure)”.
Lombardy does not intend to force the hand and for now “having not yet received new indications to this effect from the Ministry as per our request, the flow transferred will still be ‘single’, therefore devoid of the distinction specified above”. Needless to say, should the request be accepted and extended to the other regions, all the numbers on which we have relied so far for the color change should be revised. And the return of the orange zone, which includes severe restrictions for the unvaccinated, could postpone further.
Covid Bulletin
In the meantime, the hypothesis of a revolution of the daily bulletin which informs about the progress of the epidemic in Italy. The subsegratory to Health Andrea Costa yesterday called for its revision, arguing that the numbers day by day “are fueling a climate of unjustified fear”. The idea would be to distribute one on a “weekly” basis to explain “clearly how many positives are vaccinated, how many are not vaccinated and how many doses they have received”. Perhaps shifting the focus more on hospitalization data than on contagion data. These are all solutions that the CTS is evaluating, open to the possibility of making changes. Donato Greco, member of the CTS, already two days ago defined “an excellent idea” to publish the update every seven days.
“I would be in favor of a weekly or more institutional or perhaps even more diluted communication”, said yesterday the president of AIFA, Giorgio Palù, at Porta a Porta on Rai 1. And he was open to the request of Lombardia regarding the recount of admissions: “It can become a numerical artifice. It’s time to start talking about the difference between infection and disease, because there are various degrees of disease. Being positive does not mean being sick and making this distinction is important.”
However, not all experts agree on the revision of the bulletin. “In this still expansive phase of the epidemic, eliminating the daily update would be a signal of free everyone while daily communication has the effect of reminding us of the situation we are in”, said yesterday virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco who would be in favor of changes “once the peak has been passed”.
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