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The strictest rules, to assign limitations in orange band me rossa to several RegionsThey are now determined and will start immediately, starting Friday. The epidemic is advancing, although formally it remains below the transmission rates that, with current regulations, provoke the most severe measures. The control room of the Ministry of Health and the Higher Institute of Health had raised the alarm at the end of 2020.
The government erects a dam that covers the bridge phase between January 7 and 15. On the 6th (Wednesday) the “special period” ends, coinciding with the Christmas holidays, which have frozen the assignment of colors to the Regions on the basis of the control room report cards; the 15th expires and the provision that regulates that system will probably be updated, lowering the Rt index that causes the orange classification rossa. There was a week left to regulate and for this reason the summit of the majority heads of delegation with Conte was held yesterday, followed by a meeting of the control room and that of the Scientific Technical Committee. Finally, in the late afternoon, Ministers Speranza and Boccia illustrated the decisions to the Regions.
What happens? January 7 and 8 will be “yellow”, so that in all regions there will be two days of relative freedom. Days 9 and 10 will be “orange”, again throughout Italy, with stricter restrictions and travel ban. It will later be decided based on the report from the control room, which will meet on January 8. The plan foresees the immediate application of the new rules that lower the RT that triggers the orange band to 1, to 1.25 than for the red band (until now they were 1.25 and 1.5 respectively).
In addition, it is thought to introduce a fourth color, white, which in some way offers a ray of hope to the population, because it offers few restrictions in those Regions that could find the epidemic under control; it would be the reopening, for example, of cinemas, theaters and gyms (to date, no territory comes close to this goal).
The proposal is from Minister Dario Franceschini, with the aim of also showing a better and encouraging scenario for Italians. With the next report, if the December 31 trend is confirmed, Liguria, Veneto and Calabria are at risk of turning orange. But also Puglia, Lombardy and Basilicata are under observation. As for Lazio, for now the RT has been reduced to 1, but we will have to see where it will be next Friday. Emilia-Romagna is in limbo between yellow and orange.
But, why is it necessary to make the color system of the Regions more severe, lowering the bar that triggers closures? There is a double concern: the number of new infections continues to hover around an average of 15 thousand per day, the number of hospitalized. COVID-19 it has risen again and this represents a serious alarm. In addition, what we see happening in neighboring countries, such as Germany and especially the United Kingdom, tells us that the transmission of the virus has increased unexpectedly, also due to the presence of some variants, from the English one, that cause contagion. Too much faster. Intervening in a Region only when the RT is at 1.25 is likely to represent a late and ineffective intervention.
It is well explained by Dr. Flavia Riccardo, epidemiologist at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the Higher Institute of Health: “In the last report, the control room publishes before the increase in cases in many countries, the appearance of new variants, the period vacation, recommended maintaining a line of rigor in the measures already adopted during the vacation period. Why could the Rt limit of 1.25 for the orange band be revised and reduced? “The epidemic in Europe is currently in a delicate phase, with many countries with an increase in cases and the appearance of viral variants that could have greater transmissibility. We must also be vigilant and very cautious to allow the vaccination campaign to begin under favorable conditions. Whereas in the ascending phase of the epidemic, a high Rt was an effective tool and warned us in time of the increase in cases, today, with an already high number of infected subjects, a relatively low Rt is sufficient to give a number of new very high impact unsustainable cases. Also a Rt around 1 can already put health services into difficulties if the incidence is very high. This reasoning is different when there are few new cases, as happened this summer.
Last Updated: January 4, 00:56
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