Omicron variant, La Vecchia: “Behave as in the red zone”

Against the covid in Italy, the wave of infections and the Omicron variant we must “behave as if we were in the red zone. The advice is to stay at home and avoid contacts”. Carlo La Vecchia, an epidemiologist at the University of Milan, says so, interviewed on the rise of infections for the new variant in La Repubblica. “The problem – he explains – are the seriously ill. There is now no control over the number of cases because vaccines are of little use against infection, that is, positivity. If anything, they seem to protect against hospitalization. If they really do this, this wave would be serious. but not tragic. If instead the protection from the most important forms of disease is limited then we are in a big mess “, underlines the epidemiologist. And he adds: “However, the third dose increases the antibodies by 50 times. Let’s hope it contrasts Omicron. The advice is to run with the boosters, especially from the age of 50”. “With the spread of positivity that we have at the moment, there are around 2.5 to 3 million positives of which we know only 675 thousand, those who have swabbed. So it doesn’t change much to put different rules regarding quarantine” . “In the CTS there are competent people. After all, the sick after a week are no longer contagious. They transmit in the two previous days and then up to two or three days after the illness”, he explains. And if on the Omicron front, he stresses that “we have need about fifteen days to get a more precise idea “,” frankly – La Vacchia says – last spring we all hoped that the vaccines would end this story. In fact they worked very well on the Delta, now we are waiting “. So how are people supposed to behave? “They must behave as if we were in the red zone – explains the epidemiologist -, which then maybe after the New Year will be really adopted. The advice is to stay at home and avoid contact. Those who have mild symptoms should not do anything in particular. they pass, the health facilities must be contacted “. How many Italians will be affected by Omicron in the next month? “Many millions. Now the problem is to understand if in a slight way. The fear is that in the next 15 days there will be problems in the health services. With such high numbers of new cases, if even 2% of the infected go to hospital, in the next days there could be 2,000 infected a day. And the health system would collapse “, he concludes.