Covid Italy, on the infections. But for the yellow zone they will count admissions

Coronavirus infections are increasing in Italy and, with the Delta variant increasingly predominant in the country, the most affected regions risk passing into the yellow zone with new rules, measures and restrictions during the tourism season. But for a possible change of color, the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza assured yesterday, “the hospitalization rate will weigh more” than the other indicators. “In a phase characterized by an important level of vaccination” against Covid, according to the minister, it is in fact “reasonable that in the changes of color and in the consequent containment measures the hospitalization rate weighs more”. Read also Meanwhile, the weekly Covid monitoring data released yesterday indicate a change in the upward trend in cases: nationally, the Rt index is in fact at 0.91, an increase compared to last week when it stood at 0.66. The circulation of the Delta variant is also growing, which arouses the “high” attention of Iss and the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, 2,898 new cases were registered yesterday, July 16, by the Civil Protection bulletin. 11 deaths, bringing the total of victims to 127,851. THE REGIONS MOST AT RISK Sardinia, Sicily and Veneto are the three regions most at risk of the yellow zone according to Altems. With the summer now entering the heart of tourism and travel and the desire for recovery, “however, we need to keep an eye on the silent awakening of the pandemic, which records an increase in new cases (13 new cases per 100,000) and positivity (1 patient out of 33 new subjects tested) and the risk of some regions to return to yellow. Currently the region with the greatest risk of entering the yellow zone is Sardinia (0.32 on a scale from 0 to 1), followed by Sicily (0.31) and Veneto (0.24); on the contrary, the region with the lowest risk of entering the yellow zone is Valle d’Aosta (0.04), followed by Basilicata, province of Trento and Puglia at 0, 08. The national average risk of becoming yellow is currently 0.18 “. These are the data indicated by the latest Instant Report Covid-19 of the High School of Economics and Management of Health Systems of the Catholic University. The forecasts, it says, “are the result of a new indicator that measures the risk of regions entering the yellow zone by considering the number of new cases at a certain time in a given region and at the same time the number of people vaccinated in that region. up to that moment. This indicator is therefore based on a modified threshold of the critical levels of incidence to take into account the progress of the national vaccination plan. Or in other words, it weighs the number of infections with the number of vaccinated, because a number of high infections in a region with many vaccinated people should not worry too much “.” Using this indicator – continues Altems – it is possible to implement preventive actions even before hospitalizations increase. In fact, hospitalizations themselves are not to be kept under control, because acting when hospitalizations have already increased means acting belatedly, as was done in the second wave last fall. “” In light of the the developments in recent days – says Americo Cicchetti, director of Altems – it is essential to provide for the adoption of restrictive measures which, however, take into account the new context linked to the advancement of the vaccination campaign which differs from region to region “.” entry into the yellow zone must therefore be reviewed and differentiated between regions – he underlines – because the progress of the vaccination campaign in the different regions is different. With the latter we introduce a model for revising the regional risk thresholds, potentially useful for governing the current phase of the pandemic “. THE SITUATION IN ITALY” The general picture of the transmission of Sars-CoV-2 infection returns to worsen in the country with almost all the Regions and autonomous provinces classified at moderate epidemic risk “, as written in the Iss-Ministry of Health report with the monitoring data for the week 5-11 July.” There are 19 Regions and Autonomous Provinces classified at moderate risk and two (Trento and Valle D’Aosta) at low risk “.” The impact of the Covid-19 disease on hospital services – say the experts – remains minimal with employment rates in the medical and intensive care area still slightly decreasing “.” transmissibility on symptomatic cases alone increases compared to the previous week, although below the epidemic threshold, expression – they explain – of an increase in viral circulation mainly in sog jets young and more frequently asymptomatic “.” No region or autonomous province exceeds the critical threshold for occupancy of the beds in the intensive care or medical area. The employment rate in intensive care is 2%, with a decrease in the number of people admitted from 187 (as of July 6) to 157 (as of July 13). The employment rate in medical areas nationwide remains at 2%. The number of people hospitalized in these areas goes from 1,271 (6 July) to 1,128 (13 July) “, reads the draft of the report.