Reggio Calabria, two small Coronavirus outbreaks and the city sinks into total panic but in reality what happened was largely predictable, expected and even taken for granted. The situation is under control, while people are indignant in search of a culprit who is not there
It is the fault of the young people who go to dance in the discotheque and “pile up” on the shores. It is the fault of the nightlife. And immigrants. It is the fault of those arriving from the North and those who go on holiday abroad.
A few positive swabs were enough e the fear of the people has resulted in the barbarism of the hunt for the greaser: we went back months, certainly not due to the health emergency (that in Calabria there is not today as there has never been before), but for the psychophobia of people who need to identify culprits, even when there aren’t any.
The news from the epidemiological front continues to be excellent and reassuring: today is the 77th consecutive day (s-e-t-t-a-n-t-a-s-e-t-t-e-s-i-m-o, we are now over two and a half months!) without deaths in Reggio and Calabria. The last Covid-positive victim of the entire Region, in fact, dates back to 29 May when an over 80-year-old multi-pathological due to previous serious illnesses passed away at the United Hospitals.
In the city everyday life runs normally. The premises are all open, it is allowed to leave the house, go to the beach, go for a walk, go to a pizzeria, do anything except gatherings (banned for 7 months now) e group dances after the controversial ordinance of the Calabria Region two days ago that is already collecting understandable disputes. There are no further limitations than those – simple to adopt – of mask indoors, of the spacing of one meter andhand hygiene.
In the city there were two small outbreaks: that of Papo’s Cafe and that of gathered. Nothing serious happened: few infected, all asymptomatic, no hospitalized. Nothing different happened than in what had already happened in mid-July at the Tonnara di Palmi. Nothing happened other than what it was planned e discounted, is that it will happen again and again in the next few days, in the next weeks, in the next months and in the next years. It is the new normal, coexistence with the Coronavirus.
The outbreak of the Papo’s Cafe, a well-known restaurant located in via De Nava in the center of Reggio Calabria (in front of the ACI), started from one private birthday party, an aperitif with about 70 guests that was held on the evening of August 3, so 11 days ago. The event was attended by a girl from Milan, who later – returned to Lombardy – discovered that she was positive and with a great sense of responsibility alerted all the people she had been in contact with in Reggio. Tracing the chain of contacts was therefore quite simple, and they were identified as a whole 16 positives. None of them are hospitalized, none of them are symptomatic or cause health concerns. The room, after a complete and further sanitization compared to those it already ordinarily performs, has reopened to the public and is safely accessible. The positives are in home isolation as a precaution, so that they cannot risk infecting other people, and their conditions are monitored daily by the ASP.
Photo StrettoWeb / Salvatore Dato
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The outbreak of the Ospedali Riuniti is even smaller: it is about 10 positives, between patients and employees of the GOM. Again, they are all asymptomatic: no one is hospitalized, no one has symptoms, no one worries. Rather: 3 out of 10 have already tested negative on the second swab, therefore they can be considered cured. The doctors of the GOM speak of “low viral load“, Means that at this time of the year, thanks to the warm and sunny climate (many scientific studies have already shown the seasonality of Covid-19), the Coronavirus is less dangerous: the effects of the infection are less severe in patients who come to contact with the virus, and the infection itself has slowed down compared to the winter months.
Photo StrettoWeb / Salvatore Dato
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It is good to remember that these cases that have emerged in the city in the last two weeks (26 positives in all) have been certified on a very high number of subjects subjected to swabs, over 4,000 people. It tested positive 0,6% of the subjects tested despite the fact that they were already tests aimed at people who have had positive contacts. This is a very low figure that unequivocally testifies that the virus is circulating very little in the city.
The numbers are absolutely contained and comforting: today in the whole Province of Reggio Calabria, on a territory that matters 556 thousand residents and at this time of the year also several tens of thousands of tourists o Calabrians residing in the Center / North or abroad who have returned for vacation, there is not even one in the ICU, we have only one patient admitted to the ward (it is located at the Ospedali Riuniti of Reggio Calabria, until yesterday there were 2 but one was discharged because he was healed today) and there are just 58 positive people in home isolation.
Photo StrettoWeb / Salvatore Dato
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There is no comparison with the epidemiological peak of the April 1st, when in Reggio Calabria we had 42 people hospitalized for Coronavirus: 36 in the wards e 6 in intensive care. That day the positives in home isolation were 150. Yet even then there was never any health emergency, the hospital capacity guaranteed ample availability of additional beds and the infection was very contained in the city and provincial territory. This is why today there is no reason for alarm. Already in mid-July at the Tonnara of Palmi we had had an outbreak with 15 positive cases in a couple of days, but it was immediately shut down. Nor the 28 Pakistani immigrants arrived with Covid-19 at the port of Roccella on 12 July have caused any kind of phantom “catastrophe“Announced daily by”mpanicati“. Nothing serious happened, neither to Palmi nor to Roccella. Nor in Reggio these days.
Photo StrettoWeb / Salvatore Dato
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It is very important that everyone, with a sense of responsibility, continue to adopt conscientious behavior following the rules dictated by the competent authorities: to wash hands, respect the distancing, use the masks if you go to closed and crowded places such as shops, supermarkets etc. It is clear that, while respecting these rules, it is not possible to eliminate the contagion of a virus that circulates in an absolutely uncontrollable way all over the world and therefore can never be contained. Nor can one expect a chimera vaccine we don’t even know if there ever will be, and if (as we all hope) should be identified, it is very unlikely that it will be available in a few years to the entire world population.
It is therefore simply necessary to accept, from a mental and psychological point of view, this new normality of coexistence with the virus. There is no other solution, in the face of the disasters that alarmism is continuing to cause as emerges from the daily news from Italy and the world, just think of the tragedy of Viviana Parisi, the DJ from Messina who made a crazy gesture after a long time perturbation caused precisely by concerns of the pandemic.
Terrible episodes that we would never want to tell.
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