More than 25,000 infections in one day: Italy suffers the blow from an aggressive mutation of the coronavirus

In two days, 1,575 dead. This Wednesday, 25,853 Covid-19 infections were recorded in Italy and 722 deaths were added to the 853 on Tuesday.

The key to the violence of the second wave of the pandemic is “that the coronavirus has had a mutation that transmits it much fasterSaid the deputy director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Ranieri Guerra, who is Italian.

This is an early genetic mutation of Covid-19, known as D614G, which makes the pandemic more difficult to control than in the first phase. The variant is transmitted from person to person much more easily than the original “wild type” isolated in the city of Wuhan, China.

The D614G variant it has spread more in Europe and the United States. According to studies, it determines “a higher viral load in the upper respiratory zone”. In Europe, Great Britain, Italy and France, in that order, they quickly exceeded 50,000 deaths due to the rapid transmission of the D614G mutation.

In Italy, the first phase was concentrated in a few large industrial regions in the north. The second, which erupted in October, has instead spread across the country.

The WHO Deputy Director clarified that the D614G variant is fully compatible with vaccines that are starting to be distributed.

Ranieri Guerra called for “calm” and said in an interview that “cases are slowing down but the pandemic curve has not yet started to decline”. The peak will be happening soon, probably around December 7th and “we’ll see the turn of the curve.”

“The deaths these days mirror the contagions of ten days ago and the high number of fatal cases will continue for some time, possibly within two weeks. Infections are fewer and we know how to treat the sick better, although there is still no definitive cure. Hospitals have improved their performance in recent days, because there is less pressure from hospitalized patients and, above all, the pressure on intensive care has decreased, ”Guerra concluded.

Professor Walter Ricciardi, adviser to Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, stressed that in recent weeks the pressure on hospitals “has been terrible”. “In just one month, 27,000 doctors and nurses were infected. Nine cents a day, ”he detailed.

“It is essential to keep the guard for another month, to act in a rational and lucid manner”, warned the expert.

Ricciardi pointed out that for the first time, the number of newly infected slows in Italy. “Between November 18 and Monday, 216 thousand infections were added, against 242 thousand the previous week.” The spread of the mutated variant has been staggering. At the end of September, those infected did not reach a thousand a day. In October everything changed and on November 13 there were 40,902 infected and now it has decreased by 10.6%.

The government, supported by most scientists, argues that in the current difficult situation, it is not possible to make openings which could be fatal and to determine a third wave that would saturate hospitals and devastate the front line of the health system.

Political struggle for the ski season

The two most affected regions, Lombardy and Piedmont, the most industrialized in the country, are struggling to get out of the “red” zone in which they have been confined with the greatest restrictions, to prevent massive human contact from leading to a disastrous increase in infections.

Pressure from Lombardy and Piedmont, led by the center-right opposition, is boosting the controversies with the government. The rock of scandal is skiing. Hundreds of thousands of Italians go to the big seaside resorts, especially in the Alpine regions, to spend the White Christmas and also the New Year in the snow.

When the season started, the crowd was outrageous. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has announced that the government will not allow this story to repeat itself as its price will be measured by further increases in infections and the number of deaths that would ensure an uncontrolled opening. Protests are on the increase, not least because of the desperation of the thousands of workers who will lose income and possibly jobs, as well as those who refuse to miss winter vacations and naturally the entrepreneurs who run the company.

Italians are shocked by the growth in the death toll, which reached 51,306 on Wednesday, with an average of 691 per day, an increase of 10.4%. The previous week they had reached 46,464 people. Five thousand dead in one week, a record since the start of the pandemic on February 21.

The coronavirus epidemic has produced a mortality boom for the past five years in Italy, with a 22% increase in October alone.

The spread of the D614G variant of Covid-19 increased the Rt index to 2.5 in the most infected regions in October. Over the past two weeks, the measurement of contagion capacity has shown encouraging signs. The Lazio region, which includes Rome, the country’s main metropolitan area, was the first to recover the Rt index to 1, which indicates the normal level, and this week it has dropped dramatically. Three other regions also managed to revert to Rt 1. In the twenty regions it was reduced to an average of 1.18.

Rome, correspondent

CB