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This was stated during an interview with “Buongiorno”, one of the members of the WHO executive committee and consultant to the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, commenting on the latest data on the increase in infections in our country.
“What has happened since June is a doubling of cases every month. We had 200 cases, then 400, then 800, then 1600 and now we are in more than 4 thousand cases. So we run the risk in a month of having more than 8,000 cases a day and in two months, when the flu arrives, of having 16,000 cases in a day ”. With these words, delivered during an interview with “Buongiorno” on Sky TG24, Walter Ricciardi, a member of the WHO executive committee and consultant to the Minister of Health, commented on the new rebound in coronavirus infections in Italy. The positives, in the last 24 hours, have increased by 4,458 cases, with 22 deaths.
“An insidious virus”
deepening
Coronavirus, Ricciardi: stopping the rise in infections is the priority
According to Ricciardi, if this growth trend continues, the risk is, therefore, to see even 16,000 cases in a day, “like at the moment France, or even Spain and Great Britain that have made the same mistakes as ours. Unfortunately, this second phase of underestimation of the epidemic is too general a fact “, underlined the expert, professor of General and Applied Hygiene of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University of Rome.” We cannot think that the virus will not turn around, this is a very insidious virus that is filling hospitals again. The Covid hospitals in Campania and Lazio are almost full and I am very concerned not so much about intensive care, which we are talking about, but about sub-intensive therapies because there are infectious patients who must be treated in a certain way and the places are already becoming saturated. . And much less when the flu comes, what is going to happen ”, he said. At the moment, however, the situation is under control. “We are not collapsing, no, but we are in a situation of enormous pressure,” he said. “We still have time but we must do so in a spirit of national harmony and without controversies. Nobody wants to blame anyone and we must give important answers at the institutional level, but above all the population must give them, “he added again.
The situation in the Italian regions
The errors that Ricciardi mentioned, among the causes of the increase in infections, refer to the relaxation that has been determined in many people, since the summer, which has caused a drop in guard. In Italy, according to the expert, the situation is not entirely homogeneous. “Now there are Regions that have been found to be more or less prepared, and my concern is that this preparation is still not adequate, especially when the flu arrives, and there are other Regions that have been found less prepared, that is, they did not increase the testing capacity that was presumably necessary and was absolutely necessary, ”said Ricciardi. “Faced with what awaits us, that is, enormous pressure with the arrival of the flu, it was necessary to strengthen the testing system by extending it to all structures, both public and private that can do it, and then with the emergency room that in many cases they have not even made the differentiated paths ”, he explained. “The historical fact that all pandemics have a second wave more dangerous than the first has been underestimated. I do not want to blame the Regions, I know that some presidents have resented my statements, but I want to emphasize that in the face of a respiratory virus pandemic we must all work together and base decisions on scientific evidence. The moment you ignore the message that you have to take advantage of the summer months to prepare, you are wrong ”, added the expert.
School closings and closings
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Coronavirus in Italy and in the world, the latest news. DIRECT
For Ricciardi, “the closure of the school is absolutely necessary to avoid, just as a general closure is absolutely necessary to avoid,” he said. “At this time there is no hypothesis of closure of establishments or commercial activities, we are only thinking about what are the possible activities that involve unjustified gatherings about non-primary activities that may be limited in some way.
The ten-day quarantine as in Germany
Another topic touched by Ricciardi, during the interview with Sky Tg24, is the reduced quarantine, for ten and not fourteen days. It is a hypothesis that health authorities are thinking about, “based on the scientific evidence of this particular moment. In our opinion, the quarantine can be reduced to ten days as it is done in Germany, with one swab instead of two swabs. It is something that we are recommending as scientific advisers to Minister Speranza and I hope that the Government will take it into consideration ”. Therefore, Germany is, at this time, a model to consider. “We are analyzing what he did, reducing the quarantine of suspects with a single negative swab and then authorizing his end. It is a hypothesis that can be taken into consideration, then it must be carefully evaluated by the CTS and then it can be somewhat deliberate, ”he explained. “We are suggesting the same behavioral hypothesis of Germany that, from the point of scientific evidence, loses something, but allows easier management of the epidemic, especially at this time when there are more than four thousand cases per day” Ricciardi.
