Infections still on the rise in Italy. In the week of July 25-31, 17,006 new cases of Covid were reported, an increase of approximately 24% compared to the 13,672 of the previous week. The incidence rose by 26% (from 23 to 29 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). An increase lower than the +50% and more recorded in the period July 18-24 over the previous 7 days. This is what emerges from the monitoring of the Ministry of Health-Istituto Superiore di Sanità control room.
At the regional level, this week too the region with the highest incidence and most new cases is Campania where 3,071 new infections are counted, followed by Lombardy and Lazio with 2,957 and 2,450 new cases respectively. The other regions/autonomous provinces have less than 2,000 cases.
The incidence rises to 29 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, when it was 23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The highest incidence was reported in the Campania region (55 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) and the lowest in the Marche (1 case per 100,000 inhabitants). As for the Rt, “the transmissibility index calculated with data updated to July 31 and based on cases with hospitalization – the report continues – as of July 23 is equal to 1.19 (1.11-1.28), substantially stable compared to the previous week (Rt 1.24 on July 15, 1.14-1.35).”
On the hospitalization front, “as of July 31, the occupancy of beds in the medical area is equal to 3% (1,829 hospitalized) – the monitoring reports – a slight stable increase compared to the previous week (2.4% as of July 24). The occupancy of beds in intensive care is also slightly increasing, equal to 0.6% (55 hospitalized), compared to the previous week (0.4% as of July 24).”
The highest weekly incidence rate is recorded among 80-89 year olds and those over 90, monitoring indicates. The figure is increasing in most age groups. The median age at diagnosis is 60, stable compared to the previous week. The percentage of reinfections is also stable, equal to about 48%.
Hospitalization and mortality rates are also higher among the very elderly. In the 80-89 and over-90 age groups, the hospitalization rate is 68 and 118 per million inhabitants respectively (it was 47 and 86 per million last week), while the rate of admission to intensive care is 1 per million (stable) in both groups. The mortality rate is 4 per million (stable) among 80-89 year-olds and 8 per million (declining) among over-90s.
The KP.3.1.1 variant is running, it caused 3 out of 10 cases in July
In Italy, the Covid variant KP.3.1.1 is running, a daughter of KP.3, which in turn descends from JN.1. If in June the new Sars-CoV-2 mutant was responsible for almost a fifth of the infections recorded in our country (18.7%, a leap compared to 1.9% in May), in July it seems to have risen to over 31%. More than 3 out of 10 cases would therefore be attributable to KP.3.1.1. “Preliminary data relating to the month of July 2024 (as of July 29) – we read in the monitoring of the Ministry of Health-Istituto Superiore di Sanità control room – highlight the co-circulation of different sub-variants of JN.1 under international attention. Among these, the proportion of sequencing attributable to the KP.3.1.1 lineage is growing (31.5% in July), subject to international monitoring (Vum), characterized by the deletion of the serine residue in position 31 of the Spike protein”.
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