The number of new cases of Covid-19 in Italy rises, growing by as much as + 42.3% in 7 days. A net increase, equal to 33%, is also recorded in deaths. And on the dead a alarm concerning children comes from the Undersecretary of Health, Pierpaolo Sileri: “for every 10 thousand children infected, 65 go to hospital and unfortunately one of them dies”.
Returning to the data of the Gimbe foundation, hospital beds occupied by Covid patients are still growing, with + 17% in the medical area and + 17.3% in intensive care, in the comparison between the data for the week 15-21 December compared to previous. It is, explains President Gimbe Nino Cartabellotta, of “a surge also favored by the rapid spread of the omicron variant, largely underestimated by insufficient sequencing”. In detail, from 15 to 21 December new cases were 177,257 compared to 124,568 compared to the previous week and 882 deaths compared to 663. The currently positive were 384,144 compared to 297,394 (+ 29.2%), people in isolation home care 374,751 compared to 289,368 (equal to + 29.5%), hospitalizations with symptoms 8,381 compared to 7,163 (equal to + 17%) and intensive care 1,012 compared to 863 (equal to + 17.3%). “For over two months – declares Nino Cartabellotta, President of the Gimbe Foundation – there has been an increase in new cases, which in the last two weeks has undergone a strong acceleration. The 7-day moving average of new cases has gone from 15,521 to December 8 to 25,322 on December 21 (+ 63.2%) “. The positive / people tested ratio reached 28.1% and the positive / molecular swabs ratio was 10.5%. At the national level, as of 21 December, the employment rate by Covid patients was 13.4% in the medical area and 11.1% in the critical area, with significant regional differences: the Autonomous Province of Trento exceeds the threshold 15% in the medical area (19.1%) and 20% in the critical area (27.8%); the thresholds of 15% for the medical area and 10% for the critical area are both exceeded also in Calabria, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Marche, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano and Veneto.
In the last week the number of vaccine administrations increases, they have been 3.7 million. In particular, there was + 13.8% of new vaccinates, which for about 40% of cases concern the age group 5-11, in which, as of December 21, 108,112 administrations had been reached. On the other hand, the number of new vaccinated people over 12 years is decreasing.
The importance of the vaccine in pediatric age is reiterated by Pierpaolo Sileri, Undersecretary of Health, spoke to the microphones of the broadcast “Italy has awakened” on Radio Cusano Campus where he adds: “I wouldn’t think twice about vaccinating my son knowing that there is a one in 10 thousand chance that he could die of covid“.” In addition to death and healing – he concludes – there is the long covid which can affect 10-12% of children. All the more so now with a variant that is much more widespread “.
In the week from 15 to 21 December there are over 250 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants in half of the Italian provinces and new cases are increasing in all regions except the province of Bolzano: ranging from 12.4% in Friuli- Venezia Giulia to 86.3% of Umbria. This was noted by the monitoring of the Gimbe Foundation, which asks the Government “timely measures to contain the fourth wave”, including “reducing the timing of administration of the booster dose to 3-4 months from the completion of the vaccination cycle” and “establishing the obligation to FFP2 mask in indoor public places and on means of transport “.
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