Subjected this summer to a mixture of fear and hope, the Italians of the times of the coronavirus They added a new alarm that is in the media this Monday. It is the news that in the city of Arezzo (center) a cat bit its owner and later died. The behavior of the micho of a family of parents and two children was rare. Immediately the health authorities of the Tuscany region and the Ministry of Public Health intervened, suspecting a case of rabies.
It turned out that the culprit in the cat’s death is a rabies-like virus. It’s about the dreaded Lyssavirusfound only once in the world in a Caucasus bat in 2002.
The virus was isolated by the National Rabies Center from the Venice Experimental Center. A scientific technical committee was immediately formed, which met on Sunday, and a group of researchers is behind the matter, seeking two bats that apparently they frequented the ample funds of the Arezzo family house, which tolerated them because they kept the bugs away.
The Italian Ministry of Health reported that the ability of this virus to reproduce in domestic animals or humans has never been confirmed. All the people who were in contact with the “Dead cat” they are being undergoing prophylaxis.
The case recalled another mystery: Hong Kong’s dozen confirmed infections from a virus that transmits hepatitis, known between the past year and the past few months. The transmission agent is the rats and the dozen human victims, of whom none have apparently died. But in this case there was the same species jump from new bat coronavirus to humans experienced in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan last year, which sparked the global coronavirus pandemic.
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Arezzo Mayor Alessandro Ghinelli issued two precautionary ordinances on Monday. The first provides for the kidnapping of animals owned by the bitten woman (a dog, a cat, and three small kittens).
The other ordinance is most spectacular. It provides that from today until August 27, dogs in the city of Arezzo “must circular equipped with muzzle and driven on a leash by their owner. “
Dogs without a muzzle or a leash with an owner will be considered lazy and subject to observation. for six months, Unless the owners pay all expenses, including the rabies vaccine and the corresponding fine.
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Dog owners in Arezzo should immediately report a possible leakage of the animal, as well as the manifestation of rabies symptoms of their animals.
“If the rabid cat and bats case had happened last year, no one would have worried,” said a local official. But the coronavirus is well present there and the prospect of a species jump produces fears fueled by the severity of the pandemic in the world.
A woman removes her chinstrap to take a photo in Rome. / Reuters
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In Italy, discussions continue between those who maintain that the epidemic is fading, and show the reality in the data and in the hospitals emptied of Covid-19 patients, and the scientists who affirm that the capacity for rapid transmission of pestilence still intact.
In eight regions there have been no increases in contagion, while in eight others fewer than eight cases were discovered. The currently sick have dropped to 16,681 out of a total, since the epidemic began, of 240,000, a figure that includes the dead and healed. Deaths in recent days dropped to eight on Friday, the best data since the infection began on February 21, on Saturday they rose to 30 and on Sunday they dropped to 22, with 40% of the regions not registering deaths.
Isolated but important outbreaks
In the last ten days, summer changed the face of the epidemic. Isolated but important outbreaks were passed. More than 120 in a clinic in Rome, 17 in an apartment occupied by homeless families, also in the capital. In Mondragone, north of Naples, there were fifty hundred infected Bulgarian workers. In Bologna, 125 are infected by the coronavirus among the workers of Bartolini, the largest Italian transport company, which specializes in the delivery of packages, competing with Amazon, which dominates the market.
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But all these cases were quickly isolated and the hospital network functioned smoothly. There are twenty other virus outbreaks and a dozen have become in “red zones” full insulation.
Crowded tourists
The biggest concerns have carried over to the behavior of many Italians who go on vacation and pile up where they shouldn’t, especially in ports and on beaches. The Mayor of Capri protested before a crowd that to the pushes he waited his turn without maintaining safety distances and, in many cases, without using the obligatory chinstrap.
The mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, said that to control the bustling Roman move, the municipal police have already carried out four thousand interventions. But many young people overwhelm law enforcement. The lack of control is laying the foundations for what may lead to a return of the pandemic when summer is gone and late September begins the fall.
In Italy soccer matches returned on television, with the stands deserted. / ANSA
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They are observed everywhere two things: 1) more than half of Italians continue to stay at home, leaving as little as possible and 2) among the others, precautions are being dangerously relaxed.
With the third phase started this month, they returned on television football matches. Deserted the stands of the stadiums by an elementary security measure, the champions of the first division received strict instructions to respect the isolation. Avoid hugging, kissing and rolling around after a goal, for example. At first they fulfilled, now the players come for the crowding in the celebrations. The essential safety rules no longer apply and until now no one has taken any steps to cut this dangerous bad example to the billionaire public watching TV matches.
Along this path, the beginning of new infections will soon be noticed.
Rome, correspondent
