Covid today in Italy, hospitalizations drop by 21.6% in a week. It is the sharpest drop recorded in the last month in sentinel hospitals monitored by the Italian Federation of Health and Hospital Trusts (Fiaso). The hospitalization curve, in fact, began to decline on 1 February with a slight reduction of 3% and for the whole month there was a gradual decrease up to the peak recorded today. And if in the ordinary wards the decrease in patients is around 22% in intensive care, the decrease is equal to 18%.
The Fiaso report also confirms a faster decline in hospitalizations of 26% in the northern hospitals, while in the South and in the islands the curve bends by 16%. In the facilities of the Center, patients were reduced by 23.5%. “Today we have the same number of patients in hospitals as we had the week before Christmas, the situation of Covid hospitalizations is improving but the virus has not yet disappeared”, explains the president of Fiaso, Giovanni Migliore.
“What we have been observing for two months now in hospitals is the increasingly frequent appearance of incidental diagnoses of positivity to Sars-Cov-2: the so-called patients with Covid, or those who arrive at the hospital to treat other diseases and are found positive to the pre-admission swab, they now account for half of ordinary hospitalizations. This confirms the high vaccination protection against severe forms of the disease, but increasingly pushes hospitals to find organizational solutions in order to guarantee health care for all “.
“Another consolidated fact that emerges from our surveys – continues Migliore – is that over 90% of patients who are hospitalized today, both in ordinary wards and in intensive care units, with respiratory and pulmonary syndromes from Covid are affected by other serious diseases and more than 70% is made up of no vax or subjects vaccinated with the last dose for more than 4 months. The predisposition of patients with comorbidities, who, even if vaccinated, can undergo severe forms, is a priority issue and confirms the importance of proceeding with the administration of the fourth dose to immunosuppressed subjects 4 months after the last dose. “.
“Primary prevention interventions are needed for people with comorbidities, continuing to recommend the use of a mask, avoid crowded places and respect the distance. If it were possible to prevent most cases in people with comorbidities, in fact – concludes the president Fiaso – serious cadres and intensive hospitalizations for Covid would be a residual phenomenon “.
The sharp decline in hospitalizations for Covid-19 in Italy is also recorded among the under-18s, with a percentage of hospitalizations reduced by 26% in one week. In detail: 65% are between 0 and 4, 25% between 5 and 11, 10% between 12 and 18. In particular, newborns, from 0 to 6 months, make up 25% of the total.
Fortunately, the number of cases of young patients hospitalized without vaccinated parents – emerges from the Fiaso report – fortunately has been significantly reduced: 85% of cases have both parents vaccinated, only 15% of vaccination coverage of one of the two parents remains or both.
“The increase in vaccination coverage for parents of very young children is finally positive. The appeal to vaccination addressed to mothers and fathers that in recent months we have repeated tirelessly – comments the president of Fiaso, Giovanni Migliore – has obviously been successful: it is up to adults to protect the little ones who cannot yet be vaccinated. It should be reiterated again for pregnant women who have not yet received vaccination prophylaxis ”, he concludes.