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First rule. If you are going to have lunch or dinner with family members at Christmas, do a quick swab, especially if you are with elderly or frail people: if you test positive, you will avoid transmitting the virus to people at risk. Second rule. If the test answer, on the other hand, tells you it’s negative, there’s only one thing to do: forget it. Why? The possibility that you are infected, despite the quick negative test, remains and you could pass the virus on to your elderly or frail relative. Keep wearing the mask and keep your distance. In what we all hope will be the one Christmas with the specter of the coronavirus, we must maintain firm nerves and rationality to protect ourselves and our families.
WHAT DO YOU TEST TO DO?
Now it is established that more than the serological one, the rapid antigenic swab is useful: thanks to a sample in the nose you will have a response even in 20 minutes (but private laboratories require more time, however it is a much faster response than the molecular one which is correct to leave those with symptoms).
WHERE CAN I DO IT?
The scene changes from one region to another. In Lazio, for example, it can be obtained in 209 pharmacies (but reservations are accepted only within the week, so if the reunion with relatives is scheduled for Christmas, now it is too early) and in numerous private laboratories. The race to reserve a quick swab in Rome has already begun, while the president of Federfarma, Andrea Cicconetti, explains that 15 thousand tests have already been carried out in 10 days: “Only on Saturday there were 3,500”. In Lazio the price, regulated by the Region, is 22 euros, in Puglia 25, while in Lombardy it is much higher, even more than 50, because the market decides.
WHEN SHOULD IT BE DONE?
Explains Professor Pier Luigi Lopalco, epidemiologist and health counselor in Puglia: “He clarified that this is an extra filter, which in any case must be combined with the evaluation that each of us can make about the behaviors we have had and the risks that We have exposed, the antigenic swab, if it is negative, cannot give the certainty that it is not positive. Useful, but not decisive. Having said all this, it must be done close to the day when we will have a meeting with the relatives. window is lowered. ”Let’s take another example: a forty-year-old works and lives in Rome but is originally from a town in Molise, where his seventy-year-old mother lives, who risks spending Christmas alone. travel for those visiting a close relative, but there is a recommendation to perform a quick swab. In this way, if the 40-year-old is positive, he renounces the trip and saves his mother from possible contagion. If it is negative, he must Be aware that during the journey it could be infected and therefore, when it arrives from the mother, you must behave with extreme caution, forgetting that quick negative pad. “The antigen test is a snapshot of the moment it is done, perhaps the day before the meeting. And we never underestimate the risk of a false negative »insists Professor Fabrizio Pregliasco, a virologist at the University of Milan.
IS IT ALSO FOR CHILDREN?
What if the forty year old who goes to visit his mother in another region brings his ten year old son? Right to put it to the test too? Yes. We always keep in mind that the quick swab is not very invasive, beyond the discomfort of the stick inside the nostril. «In my opinion – says Professor Pregliasco – it is useful as a form of prevention that even a child takes the test. Of course, if we talk about family there is also a cost problem ». The test system – molecular, rapid or serological – has been greatly improved compared to a few months ago, but there is still the possibility that the onslaught of the Christmas holidays will put it in crisis. However, it will be a different channel from that of symptomatic and close contacts, which should prevail. In addition, if a family of four wants to take this precaution before going to look for a fragile person, there is an expense to face: in Lazio, with the price controlled, four spend 90 euros, but in other regions they risk paying more than 200 euros.
Last update: 00:55
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