It will be necessary to use an FFP2 in public transport due to the increase in infections, which on Thursday registered a record since the start of the pandemic
Masks are also in Italy the main tool that the Government relies on to face the new wave of the pandemic, which leaves 40% more infections this week and 33% more deaths than in the previous week. This Thursday 44,595 new cases were registered, the highest number since the coronavirus began to hit Italy in February 2020. After analyzing the epidemiological situation with experts, Mario Draghi’s Executive plans to approve a new decree this Thursday that will reintroduce the It is mandatory to use the mask outdoors and will require the use of the safest version of these devices, the FFP2, when accessing closed public places, such as means of transport, cinemas, theaters and sporting events. There will be public aid to reduce the price of FFP2, whose current price in pharmacies is around 1.5 euros.
Among the measures proposed by the committee of experts who advise the Executive is also the prohibition until the end of January of the celebration of parties or events that may cause crowds to occur, even if they are outdoors. The Government, in addition, could advance to four months the supply of the third dose of the vaccine and reduce the validity time of the covid passport. Now it expires nine months after receiving the second injection and would pass to six, thus encouraging citizens to get the booster dose. Only those who have completed the vaccination schedule will be spared having to present a negative coronavirus test to participate in the New Year’s Eve holidays and in the celebrations that take place between December 28 and 31.
On the other hand, a delay in the restart of the school year after the Christmas holidays, as proposed by some experts, is not foreseen, since the Ministry of Education refuses to return to distance didactics in a generalized way and prefers to leave it only for classes where they have been produced contagions. Although the vaccination campaign for children between 5 and 12 years old began ten days ago, this segment of the population is today the one with the highest rates of contagion. According to the latest data, about 30% of the new cases registered in Italy respond to the omicron variant, which is causing an explosion of infections in recent weeks. On December 6 there was only 0.3% of infections with this new strain.
The 44,595 new cases this Thursday are explained both by the greater contagiousness of the omicron and by the very high number of tests carried out, more than 900,000. The imminence of Christmas Eve and family Christmas celebrations has caused Italians to go en masse to pharmacies and laboratories for tests to rule out that they are infected. The demand is so high that in big cities it is an almost impossible mission to undergo a coronavirus test until next week.
“Take care of each other”
Reluctant to introduce restrictions on Christmas gatherings, French President Emmanuel Macron appealed on Thursday for individual responsibility to prevent a catastrophic drift of the epidemic during the holidays. Despite the fact that health workers have warned of their “exhaustion in a collapsing health system,” according to a group of professionals in a newspaper article, the French leader urged only to carry out “preventive tests”, use the mask, maintain a safe distance and ventilate “those who are lucky enough to be reunited with their family for Christmas.”
“Let’s take care of each other,” asked Macron on social media, before thanking health personnel for their work. A professional group that, however, confesses increasingly “tired” and without sufficient means against the high spike in infections, which is already above 573 per 100,000 inhabitants. Around 900,000 tests are also carried out daily by the French to find out if they are infected before family celebrations.
For their part, a group of doctors from New Aquitaine has lashed out at the unvaccinated due to the notable influx of unimmunized patients arriving at hospitals. Professionals assume that “it is not possible” to give priority to the immunized, but they ask themselves: “Is it normal to deprive patients of hospital beds or surgery, even non-urgent ones, to take care of people who chose the risk of having Covid -19 serious when they could avoid it? »
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