• Coronavirus: 17,992 new infections with 179,800 swabs and 674 deaths

  • Report Iss: the RT contagion index in Italy drops to 0.82

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18 December 2020Three Regions (Lazio, Liguria and Veneto) classified at high risk, 13 Regions and Autonomous Provinces at moderate risk.

Two of which (Marche and Trento) have a high probability of progressing at high risk in the next month if the current transmissibility remains unchanged.

Five low-risk regions. 



These are the main data of the draft of the weekly monitoring Iss-Ministry of Health for the week 7 - 13 December 2020 (data updated to 16 December 2020).



"The incidence in Italy is still too high - the document continues - and the impact of the epidemic is still sustained in most of the country. This situation does not allow for a relaxation of the measures adopted in recent weeks and even requires a strengthening of the same in some areas of the country ".



"It is complex to predict the impact that the Christmas period could have, however the increased mobility and interpersonal interaction typical of this season's sociability could determine a significant increase in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2. In the situation described, this it would entail a consequent rapid increase in cases to potentially higher levels compared to what was observed in November in a context in which the impact of the epidemic on health workers, services and the population is still very high ".



Rt index returns to rise

In the period 25 November-8 December 2020, the average transmissibility index Rt calculated on symptomatic cases was equal to 0.86, up from 0.82 in the monitoring of last week.

Point RT values ​​lower than 1 are found in 16 Regions, while it returns to above 1 in Lazio (1.07), Lombardy (1.02) and Veneto (1.08).



"For the first time there is a countertrend signal in the Rt index of transmissibility compared to the previous week in the whole country, with the return of three Regions to a transmissibility compatible with a type 2 scenario (Lazio, Lombardy and Veneto)". 



Criticality in tracing

Although a decrease in incidence has been observed at the national level in the last 14 days, the value is "still far from levels that would allow the complete restoration of the identification of cases and tracing of their contacts throughout the national territory. it showed the first signs of criticality when the value at the national level exceeded 50 cases per 100,000 in seven days ", highlights the document.



In Italy "we continue to observe a decrease in the number of cases not attributable to known transmission chains (38,276 versus 49,967 the previous week), with the percentage of cases detected through contact tracing activities stable at 24.6%".

"On the other hand - continues the document - a slight increase in the percentage of cases detected through the appearance of symptoms is observed (34.7% against 32.3% the previous week). 30.4% of cases were detected through activities of screening and in 10.4% the reason for the diagnostic assessment was not reported ". 



Overall, the number of people admitted to intensive care has decreased from 3,345 (08/12/2020) to 3,003 (15/12/2020).

The number of people admitted to medical areas also decreased from 30,081 (08/12/2020) to 27,342 (15/12/2020).