The new infections of Coronavirus continue to grow in Italy and even the data of the bulletins on the deaths of Covid remain high: yesterday 20,396 infections and 502 lives cut off by the virus (such a high figure had not been touched since January), today 23,059 infections and 431 deaths . But for the virologist Andrea Crisanti, in these numbers “there is something wrong. I am not convinced by these low numbers of new cases and this very high number of deaths – he explains to time.news Salute – In my opinion there must be some underestimation part. We count the dead well, but I think we underestimate the positives, I can’t understand why “. Crisanti tries to put forward some hypotheses and the quick swabs end up in the crosshairs. “In my opinion, rapid antigen tests should be eliminated, or confined to specific cases, for example only to do population analyzes and that’s it.”
“In my opinion – reiterates the director of the Laboratory of microbiology and virology of the Padua hospital and professor of Microbiology at the city university – too many antigenic and badly done tests are done. “. With rapid swabs there are two kinds of problems, argues the virologist: “They are less sensitive and different people perform them, so they can be more or less well done. Today we are certainly experiencing a large increase in cases. And with a rising situation it is possible that the deaths will increase even more. The deaths we see today, I remember, refer to 2-3 weeks ago. We are in a phase of ascent and in my opinion the virus is circulating more than what we see from the tests, there is something that we are not doing well “.