The white weeks have brought her to her knees Sardinia, the only free and Covid-free zone in Italy for 20 days and now the only red region, with the risk of staying there until 10 May. And this time no one can place the blame on the infectors who came from the sea, as it was in the crazy summer of 2020 when a handful of vacationers licensed to flock to the disco brought the virus and on their return spread it also in the Peninsula. This time virologists, epidemiologists, infectious diseases all agree: an example of what can happen anywhere, if it is reopened when the data advise against it. Sergio Babudieri, director of infectious diseases of the University Hospital of Sassari, says more: Sardinia is the scientifically unequivocal demonstration that when it reopens, for the people as an all-clear, many do not respect the rules. My ward on the edge and most of the inmates are not elderly.
The parable
The parable of the island: March 1 white, March 22 orange, April 12 red. The numbers: from 40 infections / day in February to 444 on March 31, to an average of over 300 per day in the last week, with a glimmer: Rt down, from 1.54 to 0.97. But as many as 157 outbreaks, 132 positive for every 100,000 inhabitants (they were 29 in the white zone), vaccines still behind, although the average 11,000 in recent days are not far from the 17,000, target for the end of April by General Figliuolo. Numbers aren’t everything. Babudieri insists: The decline that allowed the white area was a consequence of virtuous behavior during the Christmas holidays. After the November wave, people got scared. My ward emptied. Then with the white zone, free everyone. We were worried and together with our colleagues we wanted to make a provocation, go to a bar in white overalls and masks, to remember: the danger that has not passed. We had done it … On March 21, 5 hospitalizations in one day. And then comes the outburst: I don’t want to insult anyone, but how to define certain behaviors: stupidity? Immaturity? We doctors see the sick die of suffocation, but when we feel that it is not prudent to reopen, we cry out for the coup of the white coats. The governor Christian Solinas and the councilor for health Mario Nieddu do not speak of stupidity, but they agree on irresponsible attitudes. The virus walks on people’s legs. It all depends on us (Sardinians). There was a drop in attention, a mistaken feeling of release from the virus as the English variant arrived. Liberation? In Bono (Goceano), the mayor was forced in a few days to order the red zone twice: when he relaxed the restrictions, young and old crowded the bars again. In Olbia with 600 positives there should have been at least 2,000 people in voluntary isolation, instead there were less than 300: the others free to infect. In Sassari, a doctor saw a positive patient of his in a supermarket and sent him to call: The gentleman who is positive shows up at the information box …. Seven people showed up. In Cagliari the first white weekend thousands of nightlife. And in a b & b in Ogliastra the carabinieri raided, 18 minors celebrated with alcohol, one had to be hospitalized. Between stupidity and farce, lunch in a spa hotel in Srdara, 40 between senior regional managers, public and health managers, some second-rate politicians. At the arrival of Finance, general escape: those who take refuge in the bathroom, those who climb over the window and hide in a forest and those who barricade themselves in the room. Minutes, 20 penalties, investigation by the judiciary, incredible declarations: I was not there … indeed I was there. I slept. Happened there by chance, I greeted a friend. Convened: business meeting. Even a jolt of dignity (I was there and I apologize) and 5 spontaneous resignations. Not those of the head of the Forest Guards (regional police body that controls arrivals at ports and airports): he should have sanctioned those present and instead got away with this: I looked into the room – said Antonio Casula – I ate a sandwich and left.
April 24, 2021 (change April 24, 2021 | 23:36)
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