Faced with the boom in infections, with an estimated 2.5 million people in quarantine, the fourth wave of Covid, marked by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant (on Christmas day it was already responsible for 45% of the over 54,000 cases identified) , risks “paralyzing” Italy, with peaks that could touch 10 million people in isolation, as the infectious disease specialist of the San Martino Hospital in Genoa, Matteo Bassetti, hypothesizes.
CTS opinion on short quarantine arrives on December 29th
To avoid this risk, a strong pressure has started from the governors of the regions to reduce the duration of the quarantine for those who have received the third dose of the vaccine. A proposal that has already arrived on the government table and which on Wednesday 29 December will be evaluated by the Technical Scientific Committee. The quarantine for third-dose vaccinates could be reduced between three and five days for close contacts. Currently the quarantine for a vaccinee who comes in contact with a positive is 7 days (and 10 days for an unvaccinated).
At the Ministry of Health, where caution traditionally prevails, for now the aim is to reduce the quarantine of close contacts of positives if vaccinated to 5 days (today there are 7). But there are those who push to further reduce it or even abolish it for those who have taken the third dose.
Regions in CTS, tracking skipped, new quarantine rules
A document addressed to the CTS will be sent tomorrow by the Regions containing a series of requests on the management of self-isolation, in which the quarantine is requested for people who have vaccination coverage, in particular those with a third dose carried out. The desired changes – according to what is learned from sources who drafted the document – are necessary in light of a disruption of the contact tracing system, ‘skipped’ in various territories, which makes it necessary to overcome the current quarantine rules.
The pressing of the center-right governors
Among the main supporters of the short quarantine is the governor of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, who also hopes for the widening of the vaccination obligation. That is, what could be the next step after the reduction of the quarantine. “We need to change the rules as soon as possible before an entire country is blocked”, says Toti, relaunching the statements of the infectious disease specialist of the San Martino Hospital in Genoa, Matteo Bassetti. «We are moving towards about 100 thousand infections a day and I believe this will happen very soon – his words – and then 7-10 days of isolation, quarantine, means a million people who will end up in isolation; then considering that on average each of these has had 5, sometimes 10 contacts, the risk is to have 10 million people in isolation, in quarantine within 7-10 days. We cannot afford it ».