The alarm bell had already sounded on Sunday. The words of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, at the G7 in Cornwall, were signs of the attention with which the government was examining the data of the infections in Great Britain. First the caution, now therefore the concern at the basis of the ordinance with which the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, established a five-day quarantine for those arriving from London. The Delta variant more transmissible, by 60%, Giovanni Rezza, director general of Prevention of the ministry, said yesterday. It escapes coverage more, especially for first dose vaccinates with AstraZeneca. It risks – if not kept under observation by testing all contacts arriving from the United Kingdom – of nullifying the positive results of the vaccination campaign. Just as the country is reopening with (almost) all regions in the white zone from Monday.
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a deferred alert. Forty-eight hours. The measure comes into effect from Monday, after the European football match between Italy and Wales scheduled for tomorrow evening which could fuel the tourist flow from Cardiff. The decision to introduce it by postponing it by a couple of days, according to ministerial sources, is all about avoiding to the minimum the inconvenience of those departing in these hours from the English airports. We need a technical time with which to digest the news, avoiding the fierce criticism of last December 20 when many of our compatriots were blocked in London before the Christmas holidays for the blocking of flights decided by Rome to mitigate the risks of the English variant. This time there are similarities and differences. We are on the eve of the counterexodus. Many will return from London, where they stay for study or work reasons. To which is added the flow of British tourists in our country which, although more contained than in other years, must be taken into account. Fortunately, more than one in two Italians, out of the 54.3 million vaccinable countrymen, has already received at least one dose. More than one in four has completed the cycle. The Delta variant cases found they induce attention.
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What certain that the British, Rezza recognized yesterday, invest much more in virus sequencing and find (sooner than others) new strains. Vaccine-vigilance data on coverage capacity indicate good efficacy of mRna vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna and with Vaxzevria but only in second dose. Hence the call of Draghi for convince citizens of the goodness of heterologous vaccination because the drug mix would give better results. To this end the government would devise one advertising campaign which should see the light in the next few days. Two commercials on TV with some very popular testimonials, among others Paolo Bonolis, Federica Pellegrini, Roberto Mancini to raise public awareness on the need to complete the vaccination cycle avoiding the abstentions that could be determined. Sources report that the British choice to delay the boosters to immunize the widest possible audience of people with one dose was served in the spring to throw down the transmissibility index but now it has some flaws. The need to establish a quarantine arriving from London then responds to the criterion of experience. Nobody in the government forgets the lightness with which last summer there was no control among the holidaymakers arriving from Spain and Greece, among the contributing causes of the second wave that hit the country between October and November.
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The dispute with AstraZeneca continues from Brussels for delivery delays. The court of first instance ordered the Anglo-Swedish multinational to deliver 80.2 million doses to Europe by 27 September. AstraZeneca has not kept the commitments made in the contract, commented the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. But the pharmaceutical company replies that the Court found that the EU Commission has no exclusivity over all the other contractors.
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June 19, 2021 (change June 19, 2021 | 00:08)
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