Italy white zone from tomorrow, but Delta variant worries

All of Italy white area from tomorrow Monday 28 June, with the ‘promotion’ of the Aosta Valley, and stop to the obligation of outdoor masks. However, fears are growing for new closures and red areas due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus that worries the world and is also in the spotlight in Italy. On the basis of the data and indications of the Control Room of 25 June, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, signed a new ordinance which provides for the passage of the Valle d’Aosta Region in the white zone. “With the order – said the minister – all of Italy will be in the white zone starting from Monday. It is an encouraging result, but caution and prudence are still needed, especially in light of the new variants. The battle is not yet won. “. In Italy there are over 2.7 million over 60s who have not yet been vaccinated: as if all the inhabitants of Rome had not yet received even a dose. This is what emerges from the latest weekly report of the structure of the extraordinary commissioner for the Covid-19 emergency. There are 354 thousand over 80 “waiting for the first dose or the single dose”, 813 thousand in the 70-79 range, and 1.5 million in the 60-69 range: in total about 2.7 million still not immunized.
“With regard to the circulation of the variants” of Sars-CoV-2 “the ministry and the Regions are raising the level of guard, especially due to a certain circulation of the Delta variant – underlined the general director of Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gianni Rezza – For this reason it is necessary to continue with the vaccination campaign in order to try to immunize as many people as possible with the full cycle and at the same time it is important to maintain prudent individual behaviors “.” An increasing number of outbreaks of variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, in particular of the Delta variant which, as we know, has greater transmissibility and which must make us pay considerable attention “, said the president of the Higher Institute of Health (Iss), Silvio Brusaferro. The data in Italy will be on Monday, when “the Higher Institute of Health (Iss) will disseminate the data of what is called flash survery which gives us an idea precise and accurate of what is the spread of what we call the Delta or Indian variant “explained Franco Locatelli, coordinator of the Technical Scientific Committee for the Covid emergency and president of the Higher Health Council. The diffusion figure of the Delta variant in Italy from the preliminary survey is 16% “it will be defined more reliably but we are below 20%”, confirmed Locatelli. According to Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino hospital in Genoa, “talking today about red zones or lockdowns is useless, Italians need to get vaccinated because with the Delta variant the final objectives of the vaccination campaign have changed: we must immunize 80-85% of the population. We cannot accept that millions of people are left without vaccines. And then I would like to hear a stronger word from the institutions on the sequencing and genotyping of recorded cases, it is unacceptable that at a time like this the Italy remains in 1% of the cases sequenced, we have to rush and reach even 10% “.