Covid Italia, Signorelli: “Close to the peak, we need to suffer a little longer”

“Already in these days we should have reached the peak of infections” from covid in Italy. “Tomorrow the data will tell us if we are right. We do not expect cases to exceed 200,000. It would mean that they are down. The midweek bulletin is important to understand the situation. Those on Monday and Tuesday are illusory as they hold. account for the fewest buffers on the weekend “. Carlo Signorelli, Professor of Hygiene at San Raffaele in Milan, says so in the Corriere della Sera, convinced that there is, however, “to suffer a little longer”. If the announced decline were to occur, “within a few weeks – explains Signorelli – ordinary hospitalizations would begin to decrease, then those in intensive care, the most truthful to measure the progress of the epidemic, and finally the deaths. It will take about a month to enter the new phase and see all the parameters decrease “. For now “we can’t look further. The Omicron variant, less aggressive but six times more contagious than Delta that preceded it, has taught us that we are dealing with a virus with unpredictable behavior. The Sars tendency- CoV-2 should be that of adapting to coexistence with humans. Hoping that new strains capable of circumventing vaccination immunity will not arrive. It is too early to liquidate the pandemic problem in Italy “. As for the possible change of the parameters for the measurement of the pandemic “today the most important parameter is the occupation of beds in intensive care. The other data must be collected but without attributing statistical weight to them. We are all in favor of being able to have daily numbers. We did a lot to get them, they are a treasure to be preserved. However, it would be better to find a different system of communication to the public “.