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In Milan, the number of people who have developed symptoms of Covid-19 is so high that the swab run on the “close contacts” of positive cases is no longer considered a priority and will therefore be gradually discontinued. This was established by ATS Milano, the city’s health protection agency (the equivalent of those in other regions called ASL), which on Wednesday sent the new directives to family doctors.
The decisionsIt ignores that the tests will only be done on “suspicious” cases, that is, those who show obvious symptoms, but no longer people who have come into close contact with those who tested positive on the swab; and it also means that ATS Milano has decided to stop doing business with contact tracking, contact tracing, due to lack of resources and strength.
Close contact is a person who has had a prolonged interaction with an established positive case, or a brief but meaningful interaction, such as a conversation of at least 15 minutes without a mask or a handshake. As directed by the Ministry of Health, close contact should be cleaned and quarantined, regardless of the symptoms it develops.
– Read also: What to do if you have had contact with a positive coronavirus
Between Tuesday and Wednesday, 3,613 cases were registered in the entire province of Milan, of which 1,726 only in the city. But these are not the only data that cause concern: hospital admissions have also increased, both in intensive care and in wards, although in recent days the growth rate of these two indicators seems to have decreased slightly.
In recent weeks, the increase in infections has been so significant that it suggests a specific blockade in the city of Milan. The serious situation in which other Lombard provinces find themselves – in particular Monza and Brianza, Varese and Como – has nevertheless led the government to include the entire region in the red zone, which has imposed a series of restrictions very similar to the closure from Friday decided throughout Italy during the first wave of the epidemic.
The decision of the ATS Milan is not particularly surprising: already during the third week of October, the medical director of ATS Milan, Vittorio Demicheli, had admitted that the entire contact tracking It had jumped, while for weeks there had been slowness and delays in accessing the molecular test by close contacts or people showing symptoms consistent with Covid-19. The information note sent to the doctors is very clear and says that every day “almost four thousand new positive cases are registered”, a figure twenty times higher than that of the end of September. The progression is described as “extremely significant”.
Furthermore, for the first time, the number of symptomatic people reported by doctors was also revealed through a dedicated portal: according to ATS Milan, the data has been exceeding the threshold of ten thousand people per day for several days.
– Read also: The shapes of the tampon are endless
This situation is causing a “pain” in the ability to reserve and swab in a short time. Until the beginning of October, the tests were carried out in 48 hours. Today we talk about days, despite the fact that diagnostic laboratories have doubled their production in the last month.
Currently, at this time, 75,000 swabs are processed at ATS Milano; to use the words contained in the new directive, “waiting times are inevitably expanding, which undoubtedly makes surveillance activity more complex and diagnostic activity delayed.”
(Mauro Scrobogna / LaPresse)
There are three operational points communicated to family doctors.
First, doctors should explain to patients that it is advisable to “suspend the use of tampons for close contacts.” In the absence of the test, these people will have to remain in quarantine for up to 14 days, that is, without accessing the possibility of taking a swab after the 10th day of quarantine and leaving it in case of negative result. Second: dSwabs should be prioritized for suspected cases. Third: it is necessary to avoid “absolutely” that the patients arrive at the clinics of family doctors. Direct access should be reserved only for suspicious cases reported by schools, per protocol.
Demicheli, medical director of ATS Milan, confirmed to Send the new strategy contained in the guidelines sent to doctors, although instead of “suspension” he preferred to speak of a “new order of priorities”.
– Read also: What to do if you have had contact with a positive coronavirus
Demicheli explained that the current testing capacity guaranteed by ATS Milano is between 12,000 and 13,000 swabs per day and that “with this pressure we have to swab those who suffer from symptoms and need a diagnosis, so that doctors can adopt a therapeutic strategy. today we can guarantee the buffers only after four or five days, and it is unacceptable. So let’s try to put the buffers in close contacts second in line. “
For Demicheli, this election is a recognition of the critical situation of the city and the province of Milan: “It is useless to tell people that they will be able to rub when it is impossible to guarantee it. Close contacts approaching the end of the 14-day quarantine can avoid unnecessary queues.
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