Covid, hospitalizations increase: pressure on hospitals and laboratories in the center-south grows

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Hospitals and laboratories under pressure in half of Italy by what appears to be the second wave of Covid-19, characterized however by an increasing proportion of tampons – on Thursday the absolute peak since the beginning of the pandemic – and by a dominant proportion asymptomatic. Campania, Lombardy and Veneto are the regions that registered the most significant increases, followed closely by Lazio, Piedmont and Tuscany. The latest survey by the Gimbe Foundation shows that since the end of July the number of hospitalized patients with symptoms has risen from 732 to 3,625, while in intensive care patients have become 319 compared to 49 two and a half months ago. The availability of vaccines against influenza in the territories is irregular.

The Campania front

Campania is the one that worries the most, on Thursday 757 cases. The rapid increase in infections in the region, which is confirmed as the first in Italy of this new wave that hits the South hardest, rekindles attention on the hospitals and available beds. The Region announces that, in intensive care, Campania has 108 beds, 55 of which are employed. In terms of hospital beds, there are 665, of which 115 are still free. “There is no shortage of beds on a regional scale as feared by the inaccurate news circulated in recent days,” clarifies the Region, although the acceleration of the spread does not leave citizens of the area with the highest population density in Italy calm. Meanwhile, a problem of personnel shortages arises, also denounced on Thursday morning at the meeting of the President of the Region, Vincenzo De Luca, with the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza and Commissioner Domenico Arcuri. The public tenders already held have not produced sufficient coverage and the need is greater for the many asymptomatic patients destined for home isolation. In Veneto, the highest increase in positive cases occurs in Treviso, Vicenza and Venice, while the Vo ‘Euganeo group, the first red zone, continues to score zero. 219 people are hospitalized, 21 patients in intensive care. For the moment, the health system is holding out.

In Lombardy, the alarm level has not been activated (yet)

In Lombardy, the increase in infections in recent days – more than 600 more cases on Thursday – raises concern but still does not alarm because, regional experts explain, there is still not a high level of hospitalization. Those hospitalized on October 8 were 361, those in intensive care 41: figures far from those of April and May, when the number of hospitalized patients reached 12 thousand units and those in intensive care exceeded 1,500 cases. Meanwhile, the number of swabs carried out increases – only on Thursday, more than 22 thousand – which obviously increases the number of cases. Growth needs to be monitored, especially in Milan, where contagion is increasing faster than in other provinces. In the capital there is an availability of 6 thousand beds and the Covid departments dismantled in the summer are gradually reopening. There are 1,446 places in intensive care that remain active, including about 200 in the emergency hospital built in the spaces of the old Milan fair. In Piedmont there are 336 “new” positives for Coronavirus in the last 24 hours. As in many Italian regions, they are asymptomatic in more than 60% of cases, with a curve that began to grow significantly again at the end of August, with the return of the holidays, and then from the beginning of October with back to school. Piedmont had been among the most difficult Italian regions in terms of intensive care due to cuts made in recent years. Now the commissioner for the emergency Carlo Picco takes stock: «The plan of the Region foresees 700 beds and a capacity of 12 thousand tampons per day at full capacity, with about 40 beds in intensive care added to the initial budget. All this, however, while waiting to implement the plan developed with Arcuri to strengthen intensive therapies in the national territory ”. Hospitals full in Sardinia, but the beds hold.

Sicily with a high rate of hospitalization

Sicily remains the region with the highest rate (11.5%) of hospitalized patients according to Gimbe’s tracking. The accordion’s strategy aims to tackle the fall wave of Covid infections – making beds available to Covid patients when the need arises, while hospitals are also active on other fronts. Here too the positive curve continues to grow: yesterday there were 259 more. In recent days alarming signals have also arrived from places in the region that had not been touched by the virus. There are 379 people hospitalized for covid, 30 in intensive care whose total places (between available and planned) in the region are almost 500. “There is a good response to the generalized search strategy for positives – says Commissioner and Health Ruggero Razza – . I am not afraid that the asymptomatic audience grows, the more we search, the more we will find. It is very important, on the other hand, to work on hospital rotation, to open areas with low intensity of care and to work on territorial screening ”. The total of positive cases amounts to 8,867 in Puglia, with the province of Bari in the lead (3,600), followed by Foggia (2,121) and finally Taranto (643). The resumption of infections, however, is not stressing the hospitals that govern: “there is no special concern”, explains the governor, Michele Emiliano. In fact, ICU admissions are generally stable.