Non-reassuring data from the coronavirus infections front come from the weekly report of the Gimbe Foundation which notes how, in the last week, the new infections have registered a net increase , equal to 502,773 cases against the 379,792 recorded in the previous seven days with an increase of 32 , 4% .
“ The greatest increase is recorded in the South while the North-West, North-East and Center amounted to 30% and in the islands to 17.7%. Admissions in the medical area are increasing , admissions to intensive care are decreasing , albeit to a lesser extent than last week, and deaths are decreasing“. This is the picture drawn by the Gimbe foundation in the week of March 16-22 .
There is a percentage increase in new cases in all Regions : from 51.6% in Puglia to + 17.1% in Umbria. The Autonomous Province of Bolzano is an exception, essentially stable (-0.6%).
” On the hospital front – says Renata Gili, Head of Research on Health Services of the Gimbe Foundation – there is a further reduction in the number of beds occupied by Covid patients in intensive care (-9.4%), while the increase in new cases led to a reversal of the trend in hospitalizations in the medical area (+ 5.9%) “.
As of March 22, thenational employment rate by Covid patients is 13.8% in the medical area and 4.8% in the critical area . Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia, Sardinia, Sicily and Umbria exceed the 15% threshold in the medical area, with the Calabria Region reaching 34%; no Region goes beyond the 10% threshold in intensive care . “Stable compared to last week – points out Marco Mosti, Operations Director of the Gimbe Foundation – the number of daily admissions to intensive care: the 7-day moving average is in fact 42 admissions / day compared to 41 of the previous week”.
“The data – observed Cartabellotta – indicate that we are in a phase of clear recovery of viral circulation: over 1.2 million people currently positive, an average of almost 72 thousand new cases per day and a positive rate that has reached 15.2% “.
” To prevent the rise in cases from starting a fifth wave whose impact on hospital services could compromise the roadmap envisaged by the reopening decree, and it is essential to give a new boost to the vaccination campaign that has been stalled for some time : increase vaccination coverage and third doses, especially in the over 50s, and accelerate with the fourth doses in the immunosuppressed. And obviously pay the utmost attention to individual behaviors, especially by continuing to use masks indoors “, concludes President Gimbe.Vaccination campaign As of March 23, 47,794 fourth doses
were administered . Based on the official audience updated to March 9, the national coverage rate for the fourth doses is 6% with clear regional differences: from 0.5% in Calabria to 30.4% in Piedmont. ” The vaccination campaign is at stake and a strong push is needed not to compromise roadmap reopening” recalls the report.
As of 23 March ” there are still 6.96 million people who have not received even a dose of vaccine, of which 2.45 million are temporarily protected as they have recovered from Covid-19 for less than 180 days. Consequently – Gimbe warns – the people who can currently be vaccinated are about 4.51 million, a figure that does not take into account the exemptions of which the exact number is not known. ”
A final chapter concerns the effectiveness of vaccines . Superiore di Sanita, relating only to the period of prevalence of the Omicron variant (starting from January 3, 2022), demonstrate the reduction of vaccination efficacy starting from 3 months from the completion of the primary courseand its ascent after the administration of the recall. In particular: the effectiveness on diagnosis gradually decreases from 52% for vaccinated with two doses within 90 days to 47.8% for vaccinated for more than 120 days, and then rises to 72% after the booster; the efficacy on severe disease progressively drops from 73.3% for those vaccinated with two doses within 90 days to 76% for those vaccinated for more than 120 days, and then rises to 91.5% after the booster. Overall, in people vaccinated with a complete cycle , compared to those not vaccinated, in the various age groups the incidence of diagnosis, but above all of serious disease, is reduced . Fourth dose
“The results of onestudy published in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ does not support the administration of a fourth dose in young and healthy subjects due to a low efficacy against symptomatic infections . For the population over 60, pre-print data from an Israeli study are available: the protective effect of the fourth dose seems to occur mainly in older people, especially over 80, while it appears modest in the 70-79 years old and low in the 60 years old. -69 “.
“To date in Italy the fourth dose of vaccine is authorized only for immunocompromised people: for the general population at the moment there is no evidence to recommend, or not, an additional booster dose but it is not excluded that, in the context of Today’s session of the Scientific Technical Commission of the Italian Medicines Agency (Aifa), an extension of the audience could be established, including elderly and frail people. The scientific evidence available is, at the moment, preliminary “, concludes Gimbe.
