A few hours after Health Minister Schillaci’s decision to introduce the obligation of a Covid swab for all travelers from China, it is Pier Luigi Lopalco, one of the Italian experts on the front lines of the fight against the virus, who explains why Beijing’s situation is also so worrying for the rest of the world. “There China is in a way perfect storm, without being able to maintain these crazy lockdowns that have quarantined entire cities», observes the epidemiologist, speaking live on Rai Radio1, «and on the other hand also with the viruses of the Omicron family, which spread freely and found have a fertile one ground found, with a completely susceptible population. The task of strategy “zero covid“ which had sparked protests across the country and a Vaccination rate still too low According to the expert, they would be the two factors that most favored the chain of infection in China, which is now returning to scare the world. “They have low vaccination coverage certainly also in older people, and they did not use our own vaccines, ”observes Lopalco, who reiterates the reliability of a worrying prognosis on infections in the Asian country for the next few days. «The estimate of 250 million cases At the end of the month it is very likely: if it is true that the arrivals from China are positive 50%this means that half of the Chinese population is now incubating with or in contact with this very contagious virus.
The chain of contagion
The chain of infection must also and above all be stopped in order to avoid spreading new and potentially more dangerous variants. “For now, it’s likely that this pandemic wave is still being supported by the Omicron family, a family of subvariants,” notes Lopalco. «Fear is what Omicron can develop more variants, at the moment this alarm does not exist ». This is also confirmed by the communication from the Ministry of Health on the sequence of part of the tests carried out at Malpensa Airport on travelers from China: “There are currently no variants in circulation in Italy that could cause concern”. In the next few hours the results will also be published of the swabs of the last two flights that landed in Malpensa, as announced by the social councilor Guido Bertolaso 38% and 52% of positives found from the total number of people on board. And also with regard to the tests at airports, Lopalco makes it clear: “The importance of these tampons is Monitoring the spread of the virus, do not block people at the border. The virus also circulates here, but we are well protected by vaccinations and previous waves of the pandemic. In short, compromises are made in order to detect a possible one early on new variant».
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