Super Green pass without buffer and vaccination obligation: the government is studying the new decree

The government accelerates towards the new decree on the Super Green pass. After the meeting with the Regions the executive is studying a provision that will bring a new Green Certification Covid-19 available only for the recovered and vaccinated: those who do not have it will not be able to enter cinemas, bars, restaurants, stadiums. The extension to public transport (buses, subways, trams, regional trains) is being studied. But also, according to the latest hypotheses, the vaccination obligation for law enforcement and school staff. The tampons will remain valid for those who have to go to work. But their duration could drop from 72 to 48 hours for molecular and 48 to 24 for antigenic. Also on the table is the idea of ​​returning to the mandatory outdoor mask throughout the national territory.

Prohibitions for everyone and even in the white zone?

However, there is still a knot to untie. The enhanced health pass will be issued for leisure activities. And therefore it will not be possible, without a reinforced Green Pass, to attend cinemas and theaters, bars and restaurants, concert halls and discos, stadiums and sports halls. Instead, with the swab test, you would continue to go to work. But from when? The Regions are asking for a plan to be launched that envisages new bans already in the white band and for all Italians regardless of the epidemiological situation. Even in the government, the rigorist front thinks so. But in local authorities there is no compactness around this hypothesis and also in the executive. The squeeze should activate when a region ends up in the yellow, orange or red zone according to others.

But this, as he explains today The print, it would have two downsides. The first: you go to the yellow zone with intensive care units occupied at 15% and the ordinary wards at 10%, a level that it is already considered dangerous. Because the increase in the number of beds put in place by the Regions was not followed by the increase in staff who have to dedicate themselves to the patient in resuscitation. So the pass would come too late. The second downside is that the closures of entertainment venues would trigger for the unvaccinated population, but the virus also circulates among the immunized, albeit to a lesser extent. It would therefore be more logical to move earlier, anticipating the circulation of the virus among the population. But this could turn out to be a political problem.

Compulsory vaccine: which categories?

On the table there is also the hypothesis of the vaccination obligation for some categories of workers. Yesterday the Minister of Public Administration Renato Brunetta it has proposed for all police and emergency forces and for all public employees who work in the counters in contact with the public. Today, he explains Republic, there is a further reason to immunize the police force. The Viminale wants to entrust the agents with an extraordinary control plan to be triggered before Christmas and New Year’s Eve. With the aim of verifying compliance with the rules of the Super Green pass more punctually than what has been done to date. But for this very reason it would be inconsistent to leave the police without obligation and then send them to check who respects the rules.

But there is also a doubt. If the obligation were not respected, there would be a risk of paralysis for public order, given that the agents who could not work because they did not comply with the immunization would be one in five. Then there are the teachers. The option of compulsory school staff raises the same perplexities and objections. On the other hand, there is no discussion on the obligation of a third dose or booster for healthcare workers and RSA workers. As well as for the reduction of the validity of the Green pass, which will be set at 6 or 9 months. The government could instead restore the force of the obligation to wear a mask outdoors. Yesterday in the meeting some governors proposed it.

Molecular swabs and antigen tests

Also on the government table is the problem of molecular swabs and antigen tests. If the 2G Green pass passes, the tests will still remain essential for those who will have to go to work. But the government discusses the reliability of the latter and the validity of the duration of the former. The hypothesis is to reduce the duration from 72 to 48 hours for the molecular ones and from 48 to 24 hours for the antigenic ones. And this for two fundamental reasons. The first is explained by the immunologist and member of the Scientific Technical Committee Sergio Abrignani al Corriere della Sera: «We know that the antigen test is less reliable than the molecular one: 60-65% of the reliability against 99%. It means that one third of the infected are not intercepted. We know the data well ».

The second reason was explained yesterday by Professor Walter Ricciardi, advisor to the minister Hope, a Republic: in the contagion with the Delta plus variant “We are at the levels of chickenpox, a positive is able to infect 8-9 of them. With the virus originally from Wuhan, one positive infected a maximum of 2, with the Delta 6-7, the new variant has a 15-20% higher contagiousness index. This is why we can no longer afford the risk of false negatives given by antigenic swabs ». With such a high contagion rate, it is the reasoning, every false positive is capable of starting a cluster. But the problem is that in other European countries the antigen test is valid for now. And therefore we would continue to enter Italy with what is forbidden to citizenship.

Costs

There is also a problem with the number of tests. Today, the newspaper continues, 600-700 thousand tests are done a day: 3.7 million tests were carried out in the last week and 2.7 million of these are rapid. The detected positivity rate is different: 6.04% for the molecular, 0.25% for the antigenic. In fact, the molecular is usually used to confirm the antigenic. Or to get the Green pass if you don’t want to get vaccinated. But molecular swabs for all those who must have it to go to work would be impossible to guarantee: both for processing times and for the facilities (which cannot be pharmacies). Finally, there is the problem of costs: an antigenic costs 15 euros, a molecular 50. The difference should be taken into account by the No vax.