Covid, Schillaci’s disclosure: “Impossible to trace non-direct flights from China. EU intervenes”

From the first data on the sequencing carried out on direct flights from China at Malpensa airport, “32 positives (33 per cent) were found for Sars-CoV-2 for 96 passengers who underwent the screening swab, while on the second flight, out of 123 passengers who swabbed, 61 (50 percent) were identified as Covid cases. Preliminary data from various sources, including the first laboratory results of the sequencing of the samples collected at Malpensa, would in any case highlight the circulation of variants and sub-lineages already present in our territory“, said the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci, during the information to the Senate on health control measures.

“As regards passengers arriving from China via indirect flights that have stopped over in countries in the Schengen area, a joint decision is needed within the EU to make a common decision that could serve to limit the influx of positive people from the Asian country” . Otherwise it will be impossible to carry out effective tracking, is Schillaci’s reasoning who also announced the extension of the use of masks in hospitals and nursing homes until April 30th.

“The situation in China on Covid appears to be an almost paradoxical unicum“, the minister said again. “An inverse path compared to what was done in Europe and North America. It was the first nation to observe cases and in the spring of 2020 it had the highest number of infections. It has applied impressive restriction and mitigation rules, but also unacceptable for a democracy”.

This morning, during the end-of-year conference, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni explained that the pandemic situation in Italy is “under control”,