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People in home isolation, the daily increase in infections, hospitalizations both in intensive care and in other Covid departments. The figures are clear: the trend of the epidemic in Apulia contrasts with the national figure. Even if the Rt index calculated by the authorities fell to 1.06 in the week of November 16-22 (latest data available), as Governor Michele Emiliano had also recognized. But if the question is why Puglia has all the other indicators with the plus sign in front, the answer, or at least the most probable hypothesis, is one: “There are too many asymptomatic around”.
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Filippo Anelli, president of the Bari Medical Association and of the federation that brings together all the provincial orders of Italy, recites the data one after another. And he explains: “The Rt index is calculated based on symptomatic people: thus a complex algorithm determines the speed of transmission of the virus. But here there are too many asymptomatic people around and it is one of the reasons that can explain everything else.” Hence the epidemic that continues to run in the region. And also the numbers that the regional authorities spread with the daily bulletin. The same numbers that, if placed alongside the national data, give a very clear snapshot of the spread of the epidemic in Puglia.
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Let’s take the number of people in home isolation in November. In Italy, this figure has been falling steadily throughout the month: from 24,000 500 isolated people in the week of November 2 to 8, it has gone to 13,000 in the third week of November, up to the negative balance indicated in the box. correspondent. per week from 23 to 29. In Puglia the number of people placed in quarantine increased throughout the month of November: from 702 who ended up in isolation in the first week to 949 in the last, passing through the 1,098 quarantines arranged during the second week.
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“We went from 7,000 733 infected in isolation in the week of November 18 to 22 to 9,000 435 last week,” Anelli continues. The signal more it also accompanies the other numbers of the epidemic in these parts. Another example, another confirmation: the daily increase in positives. If in Italy we have gone from 36 thousand cases on paper on average to indicate new infections in the first week of November to 25 thousand in the last week, in Puglia that number has grown steadily during the same period. We went from 914 daily cases registered on average at the beginning of the month to 1,387 in the last week. “They are official figures,” remarked President Anelli.
Then there is the trend of the victims. “In our region at the beginning of the month they had an average of 15 deaths a day, in the last week it has risen to 39 deaths.” Deaths from Covid are in line with the national average. What is still very heavy: “We had estimated 10 thousand victims in November, we are at 16 thousand: it is a disaster,” said the president of Italian doctors. Last figure, the number of hospitalized. At the beginning of the month, in Italy, more than 1,000 people with positive Covid entered the hospital a day: it is the average of the first week. That number has turned negative in the last week, considering the balance between discharged and hospitalized patients: fewer than 200 daily hospitalizations, therefore. In Puglia, however, the balance has the plus sign.
“Councilor Pier Luigi Lopalco said that Puglia is two weeks behind the country’s data, in my opinion, the delay is three or four weeks,” said Anelli. Which means we will have to wait a little longer to see the epidemic numbers drop. “But the health system is in serious trouble.” That is why Anelli asks to put Puglia among the regions in the red zone. And it does not matter if Sicily, declared orange like Puglia in the first days of November, became a yellow region on Sunday 29: “There the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, sent the inspectors and we must understand if there was any error. data, whether their numbers match or not. “
The red zone of Puglia would cool the situation. “In the red regions, infections have dropped by 30 percent in one month, in oranges by eight percent. So I understand that it is a painful and unpopular decision, but the authorities must put our region in the red zones ”, he says. Rings Who asks, “How much does this drip cost us, even financially? Wouldn’t it be better to go into a red zone and get back on track with case tracking? Wouldn’t it be helpful to ease the pressure on our hospitals?”
This is the other point in the reasoning why doctors request the red zone. That’s the second cause for concern for them: the increasing difficulties in helping non-Covid patients. “The pressure on hospitals caused by the pandemic leads to suspending prevention activities and ‘neglecting’ the treatment of other diseases. This may result in an increase in death rates that we may only realize tomorrow. After the pandemic, I am afraid that, to the victims of Covid, we will have to add those of oncological and cardiovascular pathologies, trauma, chronic diseases treated with delay ”.
And this is one of the points that Anelli himself has put on Speranza’s table. “The ability to treat other diseases should be among the criteria to assess the level of risk in a region. I spoke with the minister, who assured me that he will pose the question to the experts of the CTS, the Scientific Technical Committee.” At the moment, Puglia, unlike Italy, is still orange.
