22.07.2021 – 12:05
The director of the Institute of Public Health, Albana Fico estimates that the increase of cases in recent days in the country is related to the lifting of restrictions due to the tourist season.
In an interview, Fico stresses that growth is not at worrying levels, but expected.
Asked if the Covid “Delta” version is circulating in our country, she says that as they have indicated in the IPH laboratory, unusual signals have been encountered, while they have not yet received a response from Germany.
Excerpts from the interview:
Albana Fico: For 17 weeks the situation has had a stable trend. Today in the hospital we have 5 hospitalized and we have no fatalities. We should always give some time to a phenomenon that changes or is it a consistency that makes us think we have a turnaround in this process.
New cases on the rise, we do not have multiple fatalities and hospitalizations. Is the vulnerability at a young age or is the virus weakened?
Albana Fico: There are two other elements. We must not forget that in summer there is an opening with relief of measures with or without variants is something that will bring growth. These infections are in small numbers, but to say that the pandemic is over is not reasonable and is premature. Facilitation of measures, a forgetfulness on the part of citizens to be careful, gatherings, trends in resting places that gather. All of these are things that have led to an increase in cases. This is a key moment that we need to be aware of. While we are continuing with the vaccinations, today we are around 500 thousand vaccinated with both doses. This is not enough to make us calm. We must be alert in relation to the measures taken. We all love the end of this epic.
Has the Delta variant entered our country? Do the signs so far indicate such a thing? What are you doing?
Albana Fico: The Delta variant has affected 104 countries around the world. In the IPH laboratory we had unusual sample signals. At the beginning of the pandemic they had the virus that came from China. They then faced unusual signals. Even today we have signals. We isolated these samples and sent them to Germany. We are also waiting for the answer. It would be reckless of me to say we have it. The figures we are talking about are not of that level. The delta variant is well studied. We are in front of a variant that circulates abundantly in the world. This kind of thing is important to understand that this variant has higher transmissibility. When the measures are eased there is a history of explosion. It is not just the Delta that circulates. We need to be vaccinated.