“Covid has amplified the figure of poverty, the number of people assisted has increased, and it is impressive that there are more and more families, very often single-income ones, who find themselves asking for help from our structures, support, failing to reach at the end of the month. Over 165 thousand food parcels were delivered, over 35 thousand ready-to-use drug services and 26 thousand ready-to-eat services, almost 14 thousand shopping vouchers were delivered for a total value of 1.9 million euros, shopping vouchers that we are trying to increase, being a more dignified form of help than the package with the usual things and which guarantees greater circularity of the economy at the local level “. The president of the Italian Red Cross, Francesco Rocca, says this to Adnkronos, who summarizes a year of pandemic, the year that began with the long-awaited vaccine, continued with the protests in the square and about to end between the third dose and new ones variants. Huge numbers of an organizational machine which, although at work in a less serious context than the previous year, has never slowed down. “Almost one million volunteer days (950.491) carried out in a year, 85.054 calls taken over by the national response center, of which 51.869 requests for information. Over 10 thousand (10.363) psychological first aid services for the population and almost 700 (two a day) posts, tweets and videos relating to Covid published on the website or on the main social networks. And again – Rocca remembers – 418,210 ambulance services, 174,276 of which carried out in emergency-urgency “. Over 1 million and one hundred thousand vaccinations carried out by the operators of the Red Cross in the vaccination centers of Porta di Roma, Tor Vergata, Fiumicino, Roma Termini, Frosinone and Latina; 521,858 swabs (molecular and antigenic) carried out in drive-in used for health screening, in the stations of the main Italian cities and at the hostel in via Marsala for homeless people. “A massive commitment, the one put in place by our 150 thousand volunteers – explains Rocca – paid with their lives by 27 of our operators at the beginning of the pandemic and which today sees, thanks to massive immunization, only a few cases of positivity without serious consequences. Cri we have applied the super green pass for all locations, not a punitive treatment but the same principle valid for the Public Administration: those who do not get vaccinated are placed in reserve “. And the consideration that the president of the CRI makes to Adnkronos is addressed precisely to the no vax: “When we started talking about vaccines we talked about the level of coverage which is never 100% – says Rocca – We have always known that those who are vaccinated could still be positive but with much less chance of becoming a serious case or even of dying. Precisely for this reason it is important to get vaccinated and follow the advice of the scientific community and not of shamans. I am surprised that so much time is being wasted discussing whether vaccinated people can get sick: the answer is yes, but in a decidedly infinitesimal way compared to those who are exposed without vaccination coverage “. “LOWER RISK OF VIRUS SPREAD WITH LANDINGS THAN FROM TRADITIONAL BORDERS” – “People arriving on the Italian coasts from the Mediterranean route are subjected to high health checks, including swab and isolation in quarantine ship. It is true that paradoxically there is less risk than the virus comes from migrants who do not come from traditional open borders “, Francesco Rocca tells Adnkronos again, responding to fears relating to a greater spread of the virus contagion due to the continuous activity of landings.” The Red Cross swabs those who land on coasts – explains Rocca – There is an important screening. At a global level the Red Cross and Red Crescent have shown a capacity to support especially in those more fragile countries where there is a welfare less supported by governments and it is possible to make a difference in term needs, from tests to vaccinations to social assistance “. (by Silvia Mancinelli)