COVID-19 News: SARS-CoV-2 Infections Surge By 31 Percent In Italy With COVID-19 Hospitalizations Rising And Overwhelming Medical Facilities!
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Nov 26, 2023 5 months, 1 day, 7 hours, 18 minutes ago
COVID-19 News: In a concerning development, COVID-19 infections have surged once again in Italy, marking a 31% increase in cases over the past week, as reported by the weekly monitoring conducted by the Italian Institute of Health (ISS).
The total number of cases in the last two weeks has risen to 44,953, compared to 34,314 in the preceding week. The weekly incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants has climbed from 58 to 76, with the Rt (reproduction number) surpassing the epidemic threshold, reaching 1.12 after several weeks below.
https://www.epicentro.iss.it/en/coronavirus/sars-cov-2-dashboard
https://github.com/pcm-dpc/COVID-19/blob/master/dati-andamento-nazionale/dpc-covid19-ita-andamento-nazionale.csv
The region with the highest incidence is Veneto, reporting 176 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while Sicily records the lowest with just 2 cases. Concurrently, hospitalizations have increased, with a 1% rise in the occupancy rate of medical beds, totaling 4,811 COVID-19 patients. The increase in intensive care unit admissions is marginal, rising by a decimal point to 1.5%.
According to local
COVID-19 News coverages, amid the rising COVID-19 cases in Italy, medical facilities are grappling with a surge in patients presenting influenza-like symptoms. Doctors' offices are inundated, with many patients seeking attention for colds, para-influenza viruses, and the flu.
https://www.lastampa.it/cronaca/2023/11/24/news/covid_i_contagi_crescono_aumentano_i_ricoveri-13884828/
Dr Silvestro Scotti, the national secretary of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners (Fimmg), reports that two out of three patients in their offices are presenting with influenza symptoms. However, delayed data delivery impedes a comprehensive understanding of the situation, but projections suggest the flu may become predominant in the coming weeks.
Addressing the COVID-19 situation, concerns arise over the challenges in tracking cases. Dr Claudio Cricelli, president of the Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (Simg), emphasizes the difficulty in obtaining accurate data due to the reluctance of many individuals to undergo diagnostic testing, given the mild and subtle symptoms often associated with COVID-19.
Vaccination efforts are underway, especially targeting vulnerable populations, the elderly, and high-risk groups. However, the latest data from the Ministry of Health reveals a low coverage rate for COVID-19 vaccinations, particularly among individuals over 60, standing at just over 3%. This is attributed to the underutilization of pharmacy channels in several regions. As of November 19, a total of 716,159 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Italy during the autumn-winter campaign.
In the past seven
days (November 10-16), there has been a slight increase in vaccinations, with 195,377 doses administered, compared to 181,743 in the preceding week. Notably, over 60% of the total doses administered are concentrated in three regions: Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, and Tuscany, with a combined total of 456,610 booster shots. Lombardy leads with 233,935, followed by Emilia Romagna (112,284) and Tuscany (110,391).
Italy is not the only country witnessing a surge in COVID-19 infections and various other respiratory infections including RSV and Influenza. A similar situation is being witnessed across Europe with countries like Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Poland and the United Kingdom all witnessing a surge in respiratory infections.
Across the world, the similar situation is also being witnessed in countries like China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and even the United States.
While various governments and mainstream media are either downplaying the situation or are concealing data, we can expect excess deathrates to rise exponentially over the next few weeks.
What is also interesting is that the WHO, U.S. CDC and ECDC are all refusing to comment about the emergence of new strains of the RSV virus which are more pathogenic and transmissible and are also contributing the rise in respiratory infections and disease severity in this year end’s respiratory infections surge. (Thailand Medical News will be providing an exclusive update on this soon.)
For the latest
COVID-19 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
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