More Covid hospitalizations in the ordinary wards of Italian hospitals this week, with the regions beyond the threshold going from 7 to 9, despite the new positive cases showing a further decline (-2.8%). Globally, trend towards reduction of deaths (in Italy, however, the highest value in the European region) and Omicron 5 which continues to be dominant while the Cerberus subvariant (BQ.1) advances, from 27.6% to 36.2% . Hence the invitation to caution by the WHO because, underlines the World Health Organization, the cases detected are lower than the real ones. Change of pace then of the experts on treatments compared to the variants. Doubts come from the European drug agency (EMA) according to which monoclonals are scarcely effective on Omicron and do not neutralize BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 which should become dominant in the coming weeks. However, antivirals would still work, according to a study by the University of Tokyo, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
And on vaccines, with the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, comes Italy’s request to the EU, during the Health Council, to change the rules for compensation for damages because, says the minister, “it is not reasonable for them to burden the countries ” and also proposes to “renegotiate the purchase contracts to reduce supplies on the basis of effective need” and to also consider the return to national purchases as “the current context of Covid makes it legitimate”. In the evening, “100%” support arrived for the requests of the ministers of the EU commissioner for health, Stella Kyriakides: “The EU is working to change purchase contracts and adapt them to real needs, companies are flexible ” she said.
Meanwhile, the flu runs in our country. According to the latest InfluNet bulletin from the ISS, almost a million Italians in the last 7 days have been seized by flu-like syndromes, 3.5 million since the start of the season.
The incidence of the last 7 days, equal to 16 cases per thousand inhabitants, has already exceeded the peak of all previous seasons, starting from 2009. In the last week of November, Iqvia then notes, cough medicines recorded +77% in sales compared to a year ago, for 25.9 million packs, +14% in one week.
On the Covid front, however, in the last week, albeit with slight fluctuations, according to the judgment of the general director of prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gianni Rezza, the data show a tendency to stabilize. Monitoring by the Higher Institute of Health-Ministry speaks of a slight decrease in the transmissibility index of Covid-19, with a Rt of 1.10 against 1.14 in the previous survey, just above the epidemic threshold of 1. The percentage of new positive cases then drops with a more marked figure of -2.8% against 0.7% recorded in last week’s bulletin. The incidence also decreased slightly, from 386 to 375 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. On the other hand, hospitalizations with intensive care increased slightly (from 3.2% to 3.4%, but still well below the alert threshold of 10%), and hospitalizations in ordinary wards which at national level are moving towards limit threshold of 15% (14.5% in the daily survey of the Ministry of Health on 8 December from 13.3% on 1 December). Given that it emerges more clearly from the photograph of the regions: in fact, those with departments above the threshold go from 7 to 9. The high-risk regions increase from 3 to 5. Tampons down by 5.2% this week compared to the previous week.
In total, the new weekly cases (2-8 December), according to the bulletin of the Ministry of Health, are 221,154 against 227,440 of the previous week while the deaths are 686 (635 the previous figure). The positivity rate is 17.6% with a variation of 0.4% compared to the previous week (17.2%).
And Italy, in the last week, has the highest number of deaths, according to the WHO: from 28 November to 4 December in the European region there were 2,348 deaths per week, down by 19%; the highest number was reported by Italy, ie 462, followed by 424 in France.
