Coronavirus, the second wave advances in the Center-South: infections and hospitalizations twice that in the North

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coronavirus infection in Italy is increasingly shifting to the center-south, particularly in Campania, Lazio and Sardinia. The latter in particular today has 79 outbreaks – there were 5 at the beginning of the summer – and with almost 129 Covid cases per 100,000 inhabitants, it is the Region with the highest density of Covid cases, followed by Lazio with 120 cases. If the first violent wave of Covid had hit the North in particular, namely Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia, today the Central South seems to be more at risk: this is also shown by the numbers of hospitalizations and intensive care than in the South almost double the northern regions.

Covid advances further in the south central

The virus in this second wave advances more gradually, but steadily. And the new contagion map shows a reversal compared to the outbreak of the epidemic last March when the epicenter was the North. If we take the data of the positives currently based on 100 thousand inhabitants, it turns out that Sardinia is currently the most affected region. It is no coincidence that 4 municipalities in Sardinia are already in semi-closure: after Orune, Aidomaggiore and Gavoi, Seui, a city of 1250 inhabitants in the south of Sardinia, has also been added. But the figures are also worrying in Lazio, the second region with the most cases – 120 per 100,000 inhabitants – and in Campania where there are 103 positives per 100,000 inhabitants with the last bulletin that saw the record of cases here (286).

If we exclude Lombardy and Emilia, where infections are still quite high (91 and 105 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), the figures in the South are double those of Northern Regions such as Veneto (75), Friuli (59) and Piedmont (52 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants)). Not to mention the other alarm: that of ordinary hospitalizations and intensive care. Lazio and Campania have respectively 674 and 417 ordinary hospitalizations and 45 and 35 in intensive care compared to 315 and 204 ordinary hospitalizations in Lombardy and Emilia (the most affected northern regions) which register respectively 33 and 14 patients in intensive care. Also noteworthy are the cases of Sicily and Puglia, which have 293 and 210 ordinary hospitalizations and 16 and 14 in intensive care.

The trend confirmed by the Osservasalute report

Confirming this trend is also the latest report from the Health Observatory in the Italian Regions of Cattolica di Roma, which cites Sardinia, Campania, Lazio and Sicily as the Regions that are experiencing a worrying trend in infections: the data on the increase in the number of positives from June 16 to September 24 are higher than in the rest of Italy, that is, + 154.2% (positive from 1365 to 3471 in the period considered), + 140.7% (positive from 4.613 to 11,102), + 90.8% (from 7,967 to 15,205) and + 83.8% (from 3,460 to 6,359).

The number of average daily infections in Campania was equal to 67 cases in the first 60 days of the pandemic (from February 24 to April 23), in the last 60 days (from July 27 to September 24) it increased to 102 ; in Sardinia in the same periods the daily average number of cases went from 21 to 35, in Lazio from 101 to 110 and in Sicily from 49 to 53. In these regions there is also a lower average number of people undergoing tests: 11.7 per 100 inhabitants in Lazio, 9.3 in Sardinia, 6.7 in Sicily and 6.1 in Campania (Italy 10.8 per 100 inhabitants).