Location of contacts and emergencies of Covid-19: Bonaccini writes to Speranza

The activity to combat the spread of the virus continues, focusing even more the tracing activity on family outbreaks, with the local health services that will be able to recalibrate their interventions depending on the workload. Controls will also be strengthened through the use of quick swabs and prevention activities through the extension of epidemiological screening, with the Regions that may enter into agreements with accredited pharmacies and private establishments to perform serological tests. With a letter sent to the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, President Stefano Bonaccini defines the scope and scope of the proposal made to the Government on Saturday night in relation to the contact tracing activity of the Conference of the Regions.

Given the fact that in many regions, due to daily numbers on new positivities, it is objectively difficult to track and reach all potential contacts, priorities will still need to be set within more effective strategies. And “where full contact tracing is impossible, the Regions may, through the Public Health Departments, reorganize tracing and screening activities, identifying specific priorities for timely intervention.”

Within these priorities, “in the first place, care must be taken that the members of the family unit in which the positive case was registered are isolated. If the latter are symptomatic, a rapid antigenic or molecular swab should be performed, while if they remain asymptomatic, the rapid or molecular swab will be performed at the end of the tenth day of isolation. “For asymptomatic close contacts,” once identified and isolated, not necessarily the swab will be performed, except in special cases that will be evaluated by the public health services. It is clear that in the event that symptoms appear, the molecular swab will be performed immediately. “

“In the context of these priorities – the message continues – in the first place it is necessary to take care that the members of the family nucleus in which the positive case was registered are isolated. If the latter is symptomatic, a rapid antigenic swab should be performed. or the molecular one, while in the event that they remain asymptomatic, the rapid swab or the molecular swab will be performed at the end of the tenth day of isolation ”.

For close asymptomatic contacts, “once identified and isolated, swabs will not necessarily be performed, except in special cases that will be evaluated by the public health services. It is clear that in the case of the appearance of symptoms on the other hand – it is specified – molecular swabs will be carried out on time. “Let me be clear, the objective of the Regions is to continue testing asymptomatic cases:” For a fast and effective activity Then it will be contact tracing is necessary – continues Bonaccini’s letter – to foresee the use of all validated tests in the G7 countries. “In this case, this is a proposal already made by the Regions last week, on which the Ministry This was said favorable, assuming the fact of limiting the perimeter to the countries with the most advanced guarantee and validation tools and totally similar to those of Italy.

However, it is not the intention of the Regions to contain screening activities, which in fact should be further strengthened: “To improve this action – the note continues – the Regions must, through specific operational guidelines, coordinate implementation interventions. of any national agreements between the Government and general practitioners for the latter to perform rapid antigenic swabs and guarantee the care of their patients during the isolation period in case of positivity ”.

The Regions are focusing a lot on the fact that the agreement with family doctors can be finalized in the next few hours and they are also taking another step: “To also promote epidemiological activities for large sectors of the population, the Regions will be able to sign specific agreements with pharmacies, blood collection centers, to carry out serological tests or, in the case of private hospitals and accredited outpatients, to carry out quick swabs ”.

Finally, with regard to services, “active surveillance with a phone call at home will be guaranteed in any case for the most fragile subjects – concludes the president of the Conference of the Regions – while for the cases evaluated ad hoc On the other hand, it can be made possible through an application to take appropriate management in case of development of symptoms. Naturally, the consent of the interested party will be required to activate this mode “.