Covid today Italy, “contagion growth slows and Rt expected at 1.23”

It is holding back the growth of coronavirus infections today in Italy, where the Delta variant is still prevalent. The confirmation comes from the president of the Higher Institute of Health, Silvio Brusaferro, during the press conference on Covid-19 monitoring data. “In the shaded area of ​​the curve, where the data is more unstable, we see that there is a sign of a slow recovery in the number of new Covid cases. Looking at the data from the past week, we see that there is growth in many regions,” even if it is a bit more limited than in previous weeks “, highlights Brusaferro. “The 10-29 age group is the one where there are more cases, but also in this case the growth is there but it is more contained, and in the last two weeks the Italian municipalities where there has been at least one case “, explains the expert. “Wide variability” in the incidence of the different regions, ranging from “just over 20 to 138.4 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants.” of occupancy of the beds compared to 2.9% last week. Instead in the case of intensive care we are at 3% compared to 2.2% last week. There are some cases – explains Brusaferro – which are approaching 10%, but there are very different values ​​between them in the different regions “. The punctual Rt transmissibility index of symptomatics” brings us this week to an estimate of 1.56, similar to last week. The Rt projected a week later “as of July 27,” shows a decrease forecast of around 1.23. The epidemic, it must be remembered, expands when “this value” is above 1. We had a major peak, “but 1.23 is a given “always of growth”. As for the hospital RT “the estimate is at 1.24”, made as of July 27, “and it is decreasing, last week it was at 1.46 – adds the president Iss -. However, it means that the number of cases it grows even if more slowly. It is however a situation that requires great attention and people’s behavior is one of the decisive factors “. And again:” The median age of those who contract the infection continues to decrease “which this week is at 27 years. “The median age at first admission remains fairly stable. This week it is at 52. The median age in the ICU is also stable at just above 60. The median age at death is around 80, very variable because fortunately, deaths are quite limited at the moment “. As for vaccines,” it remains to be noted that the higher age groups, those over 60, although they are growing “in terms of anti-covid vaccination coverage” do so. very slowly. We still have a percentage of 16-17% of over 60 who have not even taken the first dose “and not vaccinated” over 50 years of age are 1 in 4. And it is people in these age groups who, when they contract the infection, have a higher risk of manifesting complicated symptoms “, notes Brusaferro. Confirmed the prevalence of the Delta variant in the country: “In Italy in the last 45 days, 69.2% of the swabs sequenced tested positive for the Delta variant, which surpassed the Alpha, stopping at 17.3%. New cases of infection caused by Delta variant were reported in all the Regions and Autonomous Provinces “, emerges from the data contained in the sixth bulletin of the Higher Institute of Health which confirm those found in the flash survey, which referred only to 20 July. These are the main conclusions: in the last 45 days new cases of infection caused by the Delta variant were reported in all Regions and Autonomous Provinces. Cases of infection caused by the Delta variant are observed in all age groups, with a higher percentage of cases in subjects aged between 10 and 29 years; the frequency of cases caused by the Alfa variant is strongly decreasing, while their territorial diffusion remains stable; the frequency of cases caused by the Gamma variant of the Sars-Cov-2 virus is also decreasing, with a greater spread in some Italian Regions and Provinces. In the month of July – indicates the bulletin – 6.6% of the swabs were sequenced positive for Sars-CoV-2. From 29 April 2021, the platform for the genomic surveillance of the variants of Sars-Cov-2 (I-Co-Gen), developed and coordinated by the ISS, is active. The module, dedicated to the analysis and sharing of Sars-Cov-2 sequencing data at national level, has more than 21,000 sequences. The percentage of sequences attributable to the Delta variant, out of the total sequences deposited in I-Co-Gen, was 2.09% in April, 7.48% in May, 40.15% in June, at 85.66% in July (data as of August 2, 2021) with a weekly growth trend in the same month.