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The history of the Coronavirus is also the history of the delays of governments and organizations in making information about the pandemic public. A year ago, the main defendant was China, accused of trying to cover up Wuhan pneumonia. Now the eyes of the world are on the United Kingdom, accused of having delayed the appearance of a new variant of Sars-CoV-2. The new virus, with several accumulated mutations in the peak protein, has thus escaped the meshes of controls and has already been traced in other countries. Italy included.
The tampon plan for those who have returned
Thus, a gigantic test and monitoring plan was triggered that will verify the possible presence of the Sars-CoV-2 in some 44 thousand passengers who, in the last two weeks, have taken off from Great Britain. The ad hoc ordinance of the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza aims to trace the majority of possible positives to this variant, according to some extremely contagious scientists. Although the UK authorities had identified an increase in infections just before mid-December, the alert was activated only on Sunday the 20th.
“The situation is out of control,” British Health Minister Matt Hancock said laconically on Sunday afternoon: only then did the first communication about the variant reach his European counterparts. From that moment on, the blocking of planes, trains and cars with people on board who “in the last fourteen days had stayed or traveled in the United Kingdom” began. For people who are already present in the national territory, it is mandatory to immediately inform the local health authorities, “to be subjected to molecular or antigenic tests.”
The race against time involves the massive contact tracing of tens of thousands of citizens who have stayed in the UK in the last two weeks. In this period alone, 113 flights departed from London to Italian airports, write Berberi and Sarzanini in the Corriere della Sera. Between Malpensa and Linate, airports that serve the city of Milan, about 9,000 passengers from London have landed in the last 14 days. At Fiumicino and Ciampino, Rome’s airports, the proportion of travelers taking off from the British capital is about 7,000. Calculations that, unfortunately, do not take into account those who arrived in Italy through international hubs.
The first Italian case
At the moment, we report the presence of several compatriots blocked in the United Kingdom: they have sprinkled petitions to the Farnesina from Italian citizens asking to be able to return home after having rubbed themselves. The hope is that the Foreign Ministry will organize special flights for repatriation. Meanwhile, in Italy, the variant of the British virus has already entered: the first case corresponds to that of the intelligence officer serving in Aise, 42 years old, partner of a 45-year-old British soldier. Both are locked up in their homes, under close medical observation, on the outskirts of Rome.
At the moment, only the woman tests positive for the British variant but, fortunately, she is asymptomatic: she has only developed a slight cold. It is likely that it was her partner who acted as the carrier of the Sars-CoV-2, since the woman has not left Rome in recent times. Instead, he, now on leave from military service and employed by a major lending institution, had recently traveled to Britain for work. Now, the concern is that the presence of the British variant on Italian soil, believed to be much more contagious, could jeopardize the government’s plans to return to the national yellow zone immediately after Epiphany. The reopening of schools is also in danger.
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