This week in Italy we are witnessing a further drop in infections from Covid-19, equal to -14.4%, intensive care is also returning (-8.7%), hospitalizations in medical departments are almost stable (+ 1.6%), while deaths recorded a slight increase (+ 2.8%) compared to the previous week. Currently positive cases are also decreasing (-8%) and people in home isolation (-8.1%). This is what the independent monitoring of the Gimbe Foundation revealed in the period 19-25 October. Read also “For the second consecutive week – declares Nino Cartabellotta, president of the Gimbe Foundation – there is a decline in new weekly cases: from over 275 thousand last week they have dropped to 236 thousand, with a 7-day moving average of almost 34 thousand cases at day”. With the exception of Sicily (+ 3.3%), the decline in new cases affects all Regions (from -3.8% in Lazio to -34.5% in the Autonomous Province of Bolzano). In 99 provinces there is a decrease in new cases (from -0.6% in Palermo to -37.2% in Biella), while in 8 there is an increase in cases: from + 1.2% in Cagliari to +38 , 7% of Trapani. The incidence exceeds 500 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants in 27 Provinces: Venice (680), Rovigo (665), Biella (660), Belluno (656), Padua (650), Treviso (630), Vicenza (614), Bolzano (589), Terni (581), Udine (571), Ferrara (552), Como (551), Gorizia (551), Alessandria (550), Turin (547), Perugia (544), Trento (538), Pordenone (537), Sondrio (536), Varese (528), Reggio nell’Emilia (524), Verona (519), Ravenna (515), Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (511), Pavia (508), Trieste (508) and Piacenza (507). “On the hospital front – says Marco Mosti, operational director of the Gimbe Foundation – intensive care is returning (-8.7%) after three consecutive weeks of increase, while hospitalizations in the medical area stabilize (+ 1.6%) “. In absolute terms, the Covid beds occupied in the critical area, after reaching a maximum of 254 on October 17, fell to 232 on October 25; in the medical area, after reaching the low of 3,293 on 24 September, they reached 7,106 on 25 October. As of 25 October the national employment rate by Covid patients – the monitoring finds – was 11.2% in the medical area (from 5.1% in Molise to 35.8% in Umbria and Valle D’Aosta) and 2.5% in the critical area (from 0% in Molise and Valle D’Aosta to 5% in Abruzzo). “Daily admissions to intensive care are falling again – points out Mosti – with a 7-day moving average of 29 admissions / day compared to 34 in the previous week”. A further slight increase, however, is the number of deaths: 559 in the last 7 days (of which 14 referring to previous periods), with an average of 80 per day compared to 78 in the previous week. SLIGHT INCREASE FOUR DOSE VACCINE – In Italy 4,092,138 fourth doses of the anti Covid-19 vaccine were administered, with a moving average of 35,944 administrations per day, up from 35,486 last week (+ 1.3%). The audience for the second recall (fourth dose) is 19.1 million people: of these, 13.2 million can receive it immediately, 1.8 million are not immediately eligible as they recovered less than 120 days and 4 , 1 million have already received it. The rate of national coverage for the fourth doses is 21.4% with clear regional differences: from 10% in Sicily to 33% in Piedmont.