Coronavirus cases in Italy continue to increase week by week. And the Italian government is evaluating countermeasures.

Firstly, an extension of the Green pass, at least until March 2022. The extension of the state of emergency, currently expiring on 31 December, is also three months, with all that follows: extension of the commissioner structure, safety protocols , such as distancing and masks, smart working and all those rules and facilities connected to the pandemic emergency.

CASES - The curve of the Covid-19 epidemic currently resembles that of the period between late September and early October 2020: cases are doubling in Italy at intervals of about three weeks, with exponential growth that proceeds slowly.

"If we look at the number of Covid cases recorded in Italy every week, we observe - explains physicist Giorgio Sestili - an average increase of 1.35 per day. That is to say that cases increase on average by 1.35 every day compared to seven days earlier. This means a daily increase of 35% of cases compared to those detected seven days earlier. " Growth that is being seen throughout Europe even if in Italy it is mitigated by vaccines, he specifies: "This is why our epidemiological situation is among the best".

It would not seem, at the moment, that the new variant AY.4.2 of the SarsCoV2 virus is pushing up the curve of the epidemic, which would not be more transmissible than the Delta (B.1.167.2), observed the virologist Francesco Broccolo of 'University of Milan Bicocca, referring to the Y145H and A222V mutations, both on the Spike protein used by the virus to invade cells. Both "have been found in various other strains of the virus since the start of the pandemic, but have remained low in frequency until now. The first strains carrying both mutations were sequenced in April 2020 and neither were found. in no variant of concern ".

The winter that is upon us could still be the "last battle" to win the war on the virus, said today the virologist of the University of Milan, Fabrizio Pregliasco. "Unless - he points out - a more courageous variant arrives".

VACCINES - At the same time, we must continue to push the pedal of the vaccination campaign, trying to reach the skeptics, including a slice of almost three million over 50s, to reach the goal of 90% of vaccinated.

It is then necessary to work on the third dose: once the administration for the "frail", over 80 and health workers is concluded, it will be the turn of the extension of the booster for the sixty-year-olds and teachers. School workers, in particular, could enjoy a preferential lane, while respecting the six months from the second dose. Tomorrow, meanwhile, Aifa will meet to decide not only for the green light to the third dose for the under 60s but also to indicate which vaccine to use as a booster for the one and a half million Italians that Johnson & Johnson has made.

(Unioneonline / D)

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