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Italy’s Sicily and Sardinia to remain Covid ‘white’ zones despite rise in hospitalisations

The island regions of Sardinia and Sicily were expected to be placed under ‘yellow’ zone restrictions from Monday after new infections soared and they met the threshold for hospitalised Covid patients.

Italy's Sicily and Sardinia to remain Covid 'white' zones despite rise in hospitalisations
Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

Health agency Agenas had said earlier on Thursday that the numbers reported in both regions were high enough to warrant a move to the yellow zone.

Infection rates have spiked in recent weeks on the popular holiday islands, with many outbreaks blamed on partying holidaymakers from Italy and abroad.

But both islands will stay in the lowest-risk ‘white’ zone, and no regions will change colour this week, according to the weekly report from the Higher Health Institute (ISS) and the health ministry.

READ ALSO: How Italy plans to avoid tightening Covid restrictions this summer despite rising cases

Sicily has presented data that show it can stay in the white zone, the report said, adding that hospital admission and ICU occupancy rates are “steady”, despite being high.

Every region has been ‘white’ under Italy’s four-tiered system of restrictions since the end of June.

Having ‘yellow zone’ restrictions reimposed would, among other rules, mean a return to wearing a face mask in all public places, both indoors and outdoors, and the return of limits on restaurant opening hours and group sizes at tables.

As several regions risked a yellow zone classification in July due to sharply rising infection rates, the Italian government responded by changing the parameters of the zones, making it more difficult for a region to change from white to yellow.

Under the new parameters, a region becomes a yellow zone if the following thresholds are reached at the same time:

  • The incidence of weekly cases of infection per 100,000 inhabitants is between 50 and 150.
  • The occupancy rate of intensive care units exceeds 10 percent.
  • Occupancy reaches 15 percent in the case of general hospital wards.

Sicily has now reached all three limits, while Sardinia has met two, according to data from Agenas.

Sardinia now has the highest incidence of weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants of any Italian region, reaching 147. Sicily’s number is 140.

Sicily has a 10% occupancy rate for intensive care, at the upper limit of the threshold, while its hospital admission rate is 17%.

Sardinia has an ICU occupancy rate of 9% and a general hospital admissions rate of 10%.

Reader question: What happens if I test positive for Covid-19 while visiting Italy?

While Sardinia’s authorities had promised to increase health checks on tourists and enforce mandatory testing on arrival this summer, controls have reportedly been lowered instead as the island’s services were diverted to fighting wildfires all across the region.

Meanwhile some of Sicily’s smaller islands have placed new curbs on nightlife and day trips after illegal parties and crowding was blamed for a surge in new cases locally.

18 regions remain classified as moderate risk for Covid-19, marking a worsening trend for infection rates and hospitalisations

The remaining three regions, Lombardy, Veneto and Lazio, are classified as low risk.

After a spike last week in the nationwide average Rt number, which shows the rate of new infections, the rate has gone back down again on Friday – from 1.7 to 1.1.

There is a “high proportion of young and asymptomatic subjects,” which must be monitored, the health ministry report said.

“The current impact of the disease on hospital services is limited,” it reads, “however the occupation rates and the number of people hospitalised in the medical and intensive care areas are on the rise. The estimated transmissibility on hospitalized cases alone is above the epidemic threshold”.

There were 7,260 new positive cases recorded in Italy over the last 24 hours, according to data from the Ministry of Health, and 55 deaths.

For further details on the current coronavirus situation in Italy, see the Health Ministry’s website (in English).

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

READ ALSO:

Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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