Keep Italy closed (or semi-closed) even during the Christmas holidays to avoid the third wave in January, when the first vaccines should also arrive. This is the state of the art of the Covid emergency, according to the latest statements by the Scientific Technical Committee and the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza. Meanwhile, Christmas. As Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had already hinted, this will not be a "normal" Christmas.
“Honestly – Speranza said on behalf of the Government – talking about what we do on Christmas night with six hundred deaths a day seems lunatic to me. Today it is right to deal with how give our doctors and nurses some breathing space, I don't think it's time to discuss the Christmas holidays”. Therefore, other than loosening the bans, planning dinners, organizing trips, taking advantage of any derogation from the curfew. For the Minister of Health we must “resist, study the curve between now and the end of the month, keep in mind how we paid for the August holidays. We need great caution up to the vaccine ”.
“We cannot think that Christmas is an exception – he added the president of the Cts Franco Locatelli -, obviously the hope is to get there with the lowest possible Rt but we cannot then think of making exceptions in that period, giving rise to the celebrations we were used to. All the measures must be kept in mind in order not to frustrate the efforts we are making and will be making until the Christmas period ".
Fortunately, the anti-Covid vaccine is approaching. The vaccine, indeed the vaccines, will arrive in about a couple of months or so. Pfizer's will arrive first and will cost six times more than AstraZeneca's. To deploy the former, which it will arrive immediately in a thousand hospitals throughout Italy, the army will also take the field: the most felt problem is that of conservation. In fact, there is a lack of cold rooms, which according to Pfizer's requests should reach -80 degrees. On the other hand, the vaccines that will arrive later, such as that of AstraZeneca, in addition to costing less, will also be transportable and storable more easily, at temperatures between -2 and -8 degrees.
A crucial issue is then safety. In recent hours there have been repeated contacts with intelligence: it is clear that the vaccine issue is a national security issue. A clear robbery alarm has arrived from Germany. The sites where the vaccine will arrive must be secret and well protected. A table has already been set up at the Ministry of Health on this: the Defense has given full willingness to collaborate in the distribution and also in the administration through the military health system, and the minister has given instructions to the General Staff to prepare a planning to be made available.
