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29 July 2020In the last 30 days "we travel around 200-300 positive cases per day, a stable figure despite small daily variations". However, the transmission of Sars-Cov-2, "although under control, continues to persist in all areas of the country", as evidenced by the outbreaks, albeit contained, "present in a widespread way in the various regions". Silvio Brusaferro, president of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) explained it during the presentation of the OsMed Report on the use of drugs during the COVID-19 epidemic, presented today by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA).

"We are at the bottom of the epidemic curve". A significant figure is "the average age of the new positives, which was previously over 70 years old, and now has fallen to around 40. However, lethality mainly concerns the older ages". Brusaferro specified that "from 6 to 19 July 44% of new cases have been identified through serological screening activities and 30% of the positives identified are asymptomatic". 

"I think I don't have to express any opinion, because the data is explanatory. And I leave the floor to the data that comes to us from the monitoring and tells us a reality. We must also look at what happens across the border. We are in a controlled epidemic phase in Italy, but everything shows that the virus is circulating. We also look to Europe and the United States, and to other continents. We are in a common home. All institutions are continuing to work with monitoring. But epidemics are won when it is possible to coordinate global and local business. "

Lockdown plus online gambling and attempts to bid farewell to smoking
The Covid-19 emergency and the lockdown that Italians had to comply with to stem it "has also had an impact on phenomena such as smoking and gambling". Impact that has translated into an increase in attempts to say goodbye to smoking and an increase in the practice of online gambling "lower than expected". Silvio Brusaferro told it. The survey shows that "traditional cigarette smokers have decreased", from 23.3 to 21.9%, "but consumers of heated tobacco and electronic cigarettes and the number of daily cigarettes consumed among women have increased". At the same time, 218 thousand people have become new smokers. As for gambling, "the survey showed that" live gambling collapsed, hampered by the lockdown (from 6.4% to 1.7%), "while online gambling grew" from 6 , 5% to 7.3%. And "the practice is expanding also in the young age groups".