Vaccinate the elderly and frail first, then everyone else. It is better to achieve total coverage of the over 80 population as soon as possible, than to see the percentage of vaccinated people grow on the total population. This is how Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke in the press conference on Thursday, after which the extraordinary commissioner for the Covid emergency Gen. Francesco Figliuolo issued a directive forcing the Regions to adapt to this line. Some of them, especially in the South but also in Tuscany, have neglected this priority and after three months of the vaccination campaign have inoculated relatively few doses to the categories most at risk. It is no coincidence that it is precisely two southern regions, Campania and Puglia, that are still red while almost all of the rest of the country it is in orange. And someone already sees yellow, which cannot be excluded even before April 30th.
Among the most virtuous Regions on vaccines for the elderly are Lazio, Veneto, but also Emilia, Piedmont, Basilicata. It stands out though the performance of Trentino-Alto-Adige, the “Scandinavia of Italy, and in particular of the Autonomous Province of Trento. According to data updated to Friday 9 April, Trentino has a percentage of the population vaccinated per 100.000 inhabitants - including second doses - slightly lower than some Regions (20,9% against 24% in Liguria and 23% in Tuscany , for example), but on the other hand leads the ranking of vaccines for the over 80s: also counting the recalls, the percentage is 127%, i.e. all over 80 received their first dose and that many of them were also inoculated with the second, for a total of 50.438 administrations in that age group.
And the results can be seen: the Rt index of Trentino is among the lowest in Italy (0,86) and above all infections in the elderly are drastically decreasing, and consequently hospitalizations in intensive care and deaths are decreasing. Friday 9th April in the Province of Trento only 2 deaths were recorded, two people of average age just around 80 years old. But among the new infections there are 16 cases of children or young people of school age (between 0 and 19 years), 20 cases among those between 60 and 69 years old, 9 cases between 70-79 years and only 7 cases of 80 and older, which are usually the most affected category. In hospitals, discharges (19) continue to far exceed new hospitalizations (7), and there were 247 recoveries on Friday, a figure that brings the total to 38.943. With these data, it is not difficult to imagine a return to yellow well before April 30th.
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign in Trentino, a total of 113.636 doses, i.e. 81,98% of the total available in this province. The 70-79 age group is also proceeding quickly: administrations have already been over 17.000. Considering also the data from South Tyrol, which is also very virtuous and has in turn covered all the over 80s with at least one dose, it emerges that in the Trentino-Alto-Adige region more than 20% of the total population has been vaccinated and that 7% are already fully immunized. In the Scandinavia of Italy every day 3 out of 100 citizens are vaccinated and 15 out of 100 receive the second dose.
