Italy is ramping up its Covid-19 winter wave preparations by announcing the return of mandatory self-isolation for those who test positive for the virus.
On the subject of the Covid positive quarantine, the Italian health minister said “there is an opinion from the Superior Health Council (CSS) that is coming and as soon as it is formalized we will make the appropriate assessments. What is certain is that if a person is positive he must stay at home, this is the very clear and clear indication. On the number of days the evaluation in these hours is made by the CSS. According to the indications of the CSS-he stated-if a person is positive he is, symptoms or no symptoms, and if it is, he must remain in isolation to avoid the spread of the infection”.
Italy is also about to approve the use of updated Covid-19 vaccines targeting the Omicron variant, despite their limited use in preventing infection:
“Our expectation is that tomorrow the European Medicines Agency Ema will be able to give the green light to vaccines adapted against the Omicron variant and then the pronouncement of the Italian Medicines Agency Aifa will follow. We count on having updated vaccines available by mid-September,” said the health minister.
Italy has had a pretty awful pandemic so far, with both infection and death rates from Covid regularly exceeding European averages. Their elderly population has borne the brunt of the unrelenting attacks by the virus since early 2020.
Unlike the UK and the USA, however, the Italian response to Covid hasn’t been blighted by poor planning, bad leadership, a recalcitrant population or a reluctance to take common-sense measures to prevent infection. Italy’s bad luck in tackling the virus appears to be largely down to demographics and their famously open and gregarious society.
Italian Covid-19 deaths have also regularly been higher than EU averages:
