The Omicron variant continues to spread out of control and the government opens to a change of pace on emergency management, starting with the request of the Regions to reconsider the color system. "It is clear that in the coming weeks we will have to open a discussion with the Regions and in the next few hours we will open a technical table to address the issues they have proposed", explains the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza.
A first glimmer is on the count of Covid hospitalizations, distinguishing between positive asymptomatic and sick. On this front, undersecretary Pierpaolo Sileri has also joined in the last few hours, who says he "agrees on the need for the revision, which can be done in the next few days, perhaps within a couple of weeks, with a distinction between those who are positive to the virus and the sick. The communication of data must be updated and - he stresses - the new phase of the epidemic must soon lead us to review the rules, especially for the management of hospitals ".
THE GREEN PASS - In the meantime, from next month you will enter with the green certificate, basic or reinforced, everywhere except in supermarkets, grocery stores, hospitals and pharmacies. The provision - in the form of a Dpcm - could arrive in view of the next Council of Ministers and will serve to clarify what is contained in the latest anti-Covid decree, according to which the "basic" pass will be necessary from 1 February also in public offices, postal services , banks and commercial activities, with the exception of services "necessary to ensure the satisfaction of essential and primary needs of the person".
A question mark remains precisely on the exceptions: it will certainly be possible to go to the doctor, the veterinarian, go to report a crime, enter the court to testify or access certain activities for urgent needs for the protection of minors, but the debate is still open on others places to include in the list. The draft prepared by the ministry of public administration would include a limited number of exceptions, but the ministry of economic development would be pushing for a broader list that also includes tobacconists, newsstands, bookstores, toy and lingerie stores. From January 20, however, barbers, hairdressers and beauticians will already have to ask their customers for the basic green certificate, the one that can also be obtained with a tampon.
THE FOURTH DOSE - In the coming months, however, it is not excluded that the frail will need the fourth dose of the vaccine. "Only the timing of observations and well-conducted investigations will tell us if there will be the need to make further boosters every 4 months. If anything, the discourse on the fourth dose could concern the frail", explains the president of the Superior Health Council, Franco Locatelli, for which a specific vaccine against Omicron would make absolutely sense. And on the do-it-yourself tests for the beginning and end of the quarantine from Covid, as announced in Emilia Romagna, he clarifies: "It is considerable to explore tracing strategies, but in the context of well-controlled trials".
The "reconsideration" of the coloring system of the regions is instead "in the logic of things" - adds Locatelli - because this method "was developed by the Ministry of Health in agreement with the Regions in a different era".
(Unioneonline / D)