State of emergency 2022, Ricciardi: “We need an extension, strong choices in January”

We need the extension of the state of emergency. This was stated by Walter Ricciardi, full professor of Hygiene at the Catholic University and consultant to Minister Speranza, focusing on the covid emergency in Italy and on the strategies to be adopted. “The measures taken and the high number of vaccinated people mean that the increase in cases is linear and not exponential, but it is still a growth in contagion and deaths. But January is very worrying and the state of emergency should be extended “, Ricciardi told the press, highlighting that it is the share of unvaccinated that still makes us vulnerable:” There are 6 million adults and 3 million children, a significant reservoir of the virus, with numerous vulnerabilities that explain the many deaths. The Omicron variant could cause less disease, but if it were more contagious it would still worsen the situation. The first South African figures are not indicative. The clarity will come from the English surveys, but the first news is not comforting. My prediction is that the UK will need another lockdown in January due to the Delta and Omicron combination. Italy has implemented a series of measures, from the Super Green Pass to the closure of flights, to the speeding up of the third dose, which make it possible to limit and postpone the problem, in the hope of surviving the winter without damage and arriving in spring ” . As for the vaccination obligation, Ricciardi stresses that “in the meantime from 15 December it will be applied for three doses as well as to health workers also to school personnel, military and law enforcement. Then in public health nothing is excluded, because decisions are made on the basis of scientific evidence and epidemiological situation. With this premise, now the generalized obligation is not indispensable, while it would be in Eastern countries, Russia and Great Britain, where despite the possibility of vaccines, the worst moments of the whole pandemic are experienced. The Italian level of vaccination is one of the best in Europe, but we must not be satisfied up to 95 percent. We have grown accustomed to a hundred deaths a day, which could be avoided if everyone got vaccinated. Will the state of emergency, which expires on December 31, be renewed? From a health point of view, absolutely yes. The winter will be very hard and decisions will have to be made to contain the virus. I am thinking of an intensification of the Super Green Pass with more controls. It is not enough to make the rules, they must be applied ”.