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COVID-19 RULES

Italy debates further Covid rule changes as daily cases near 100,000

Italy announced a new record high 98,020 Covid cases in the last 24 hours on Wednesday as the government considers further tightening health restrictions.

Published: 29 December 2021 19:09 CET
People wear face masks as they walk in central Rome.
Italy is expected to announce new restrictions just days after a new Covid-19 decree came into force. Photo: Vincenzo PINTO/AFP

The daily positive figure is a sharp increase on Tuesday’s 78,313 cases, the previous record high since the start of the pandemic.

A total of 1,029,429 tests were carried out on Wednesday, compared to 1,034,677 on Tuesday, the data from Italy’s health ministry showed. The test positivity rate rose from 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent.

Covid-19: Italy to review quarantine rules as Omicron cases soar

There were 136 more Covid deaths reported on Wednesday, compared to 202 on Tuesday.

Intensive care cases increased by 40 to a total of 1,185 nationwide, and hospital admissions were up 489 to 10,578.

The figures came as the Italian government called a meeting on Wednesday evening to discuss further changes to the country’s health measures – just days after a new Covid-19 decree came into force.

The Italian government’s panel of scientific experts, the comitato tecnico scientifico or technical scientific committee (CTS). is expected to decide on Wednesday whether a cut to the quarantine period should be allowed for triple-vaccinated people who come into contact with a positive case.

EXPLAINED: How to get a Covid-19 vaccine booster shot in Italy

The change is expected to come amid concerns about the economic impact of millions of people having to quarantine in Italy at the same time.

Senior health ministry figures earlier this week predicted Italy would soon exceed 100,000 daily cases – meaning up to half a million more people could be required to quarantine every day.

Hundreds of trains are being cancelled daily, operator Trenord said on Wednesday, due to a high number of staff absences.

The Italian government is set to make a decision on Wednesday night following the scientific panel’s recommendations.

It will also discuss whether to extend a ‘super’ or reinforced green pass obligation to all workplaces, according to reports from news agency Ansa on Wednesday citing government sources.

A move to expand the country’s current vaccine mandate would face strong opposition from within the coalition government, however, and looks unlikely to be approved at Wednesday’s meeting according to La Repubblica.

Italy’s reinforced green pass. introduced in early December, can only be obtained via vaccination or recovery, and not with a negative test result.

For further details about Italy’s current Covid-19 health measures please see the Italian Health Ministry’s website (available in English).

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HEALTH

Italian hospitals under pressure as flu and Covid cases rise

Italy's doctors warned on Wednesday that hospitals risk becoming overwhelmed as the number of patients suffering from acute cases of seasonal flu and Covid has ballooned.

Published: 10 January 2024 16:24 CET
Italian hospitals under pressure as flu and Covid cases rise

Emergency rooms in Italy’s hospitals are facing a “crisis”, doctors warned, as ever-increasing numbers of people in Italy are becoming infected with Covid and the winter flu virus.

Since Sunday, two patients in the northern city of Vicenza, a 55-year-old and 47-year-old man, are reported to have died of the H1N1 virus, a seasonal flu that’s been circulating since 2009.

A further three patients also suffering from the virus in the same Vicenza hospital, San Bortolo, were reportedly in a critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon.

Matteo Bassetti, director of infectious diseases at the San Martino hospital in Genoa, blamed the outbreak on the authorities’ failure to conduct an effective seasonal vaccine campaign.

“The vaccination campaign was disastrous and these are the results,” he told journalists.

Italy’s Federation of Oncologists, Cardiologists and Hematologists, Foce, on Wednesday published an appeal to government to address the growing crisis.

“For several weeks we have been witnessing the phenomenon of worsening chaos in our emergency systems. The emergency rooms are in a nightmare situation and the hospital wards are ‘under siege’,” the federation’s board wrote in a statement.

“It is clear that what was said at the end of July is not true, that is, that the Covid pandemic “had ended in terms of numbers”. The virus never disappeared,” they added.

“The current very acute emergency room crisis is therefore also due to the lackluster and inadequate influenza vaccination campaign, which has had much lower coverage than in previous years.”

Covid booster vaccines have been available to at-risk categories since October in most Italian regions, and to the general public since early December, but a lack of publicity is being blamed for the fact that many doctors, as well as patients, were unaware that the vaccine was available.

Vicenza’s local health authority has urged residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible and encouraged the use of masks in the event of an infection.

Spain on Monday reinstated a requirement to wear masks in hospitals as the country faced a major flu outbreak and Covid cases surged.

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