Covid Lombardia, “emergency help needed for collapse, lockdown needed”

Published on: 10/27/2020 12:07 PM

We call for the immediate implementation of the most restrictive measures to contain the spread of the virus in society, throughout the region, or at least in the areas of greatest risk (such as Milan) without delay and at the cost of unpopularity. The latest measures represent a step forward. go ahead, but unfortunately they are not enough ”. It is the lure of Lombard first aid. The spokesperson is Guido Bertolini, head of the Covid-19 Coordination of these departments. Heard by Adnkronos Salute, he clarifies the meaning of the message: “Now we have to close down. We have reached the point where a lockdown is needed. The risk situation is widespread, it affects the entire region. Especially in some areas, the welfare system it’s close to collapse. ” . Milan is ahead, but other provinces also have that exponential trend that is worrying.

For Bertolini the problem is precisely this: “When exponential growth enters the steep upward phase,” he explains, “there is no way to control it. And it is necessary to close. It is too late for more. Any measure takes effect between 10-15 days. Even if we shut everything down now, for 15 days we will continue to see this impressive growth of infections and patients needing treatment with suffering from hospitals. If the emergency rooms are in an almost unmanageable situation, and they are, that suffering then reaches all levels. Even society is not saved. “

Bertolini thinks of the street protests in recent days. “Unfortunately, I do not think the story we are telling is true,” he observes. What we cannot understand is that leaving it open does not mean that the economy will be able to function, with a pathology of these proportions in circulation. Impact on the economy, I am afraid they are greater than those that would have occurred with the option to close for a limited period. Those who have a business cannot accept this vision, but the data is clear and there are already studies that calculate the costs of the pandemic. , independent of closures “.

Bertolini is from Bergamo and has experienced the pain that the first wave of Covid-19 brought up close. “I’m afraid that the confinement we will be forced to do and we will understand when we start to see the same things that we saw in Bergamo in March-April. Really impressive scenes, like the procession of military trucks with coffins, that we all have in mind. we will arrive because each day of delay has an incredible impact. I understand that we must safeguard the economy, society, but what is the best way to do it? We have not yet given a credible answer to this question. People know what the real situation is. and in which direction we are going ”.

“Unfortunately, we are facing a second serious emergency,” he stresses. We want to represent to the Lombard citizens what is really happening in the hospitals of our region. The sudden increase in infections has reached the threshold level that causes stress in the hospital system. Does this mean the stress of the hospital system? It means dealing with an ‘exponential’ daily increase in Covid-19 patients coming to the emergency room. “

Some of the patients who come to these emergency rooms, Bertolini says, “urgently need oxygen to breathe and sometimes need ventilators such as helmets for CPAP and, in the worst case, turn to mechanical ventilation in intensive care.”

“In many cases”, adds Bertolini, patients “do not find the possibility of immediate hospitalization due to lack of available beds and remain 24-48-72 hours (but sometimes even longer) in the emergency room. waiting for a destination. “Along with these patients,” much more than in March and April when we were locked up, there are non-Covid patients, critics and others. “The result, Bertolini warns,” is to have an emergency service in extreme suffering with areas overcrowded in which the necessary distance is lacking, thus increasing the risk of infection by air, both the risks of clinical error and that of not fully treating patients.

For the experts it is “a really dangerous situation that requires immediate choices and strategies.”