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Keystone/TI-Press
In Ticino, twice as many patients were hospitalized because of Corona within a week – you won’t find that anywhere else in Switzerland. Canton doctor Giorgio Merlani cannot explain this.
The number of corona cases is increasing in Ticino, like everywhere in Switzerland, just plain on. Compared to the previous week, the number of new infections rose from almost 2,000 to over 3,000. What is particularly noteworthy, however, is the increase in hospital admissions for Covid patients, as canton doctor Giorgio Merlani told the RSI broadcaster.
According to Merlani, there were still 40 corona patients in the hospitals two weeks ago, a week later there were already 80 – and the number has now doubled once more to 160. Merlani explains that nowhere in Switzerland and not in Lombardy has there been such an increase in hospitalizations.
Merlani makes it clear at RSI that this increase is not due to the fact that the medical profession has changed its mind and is now instructing people more quickly. Cultural reasons may also have an influence, he says, but these cannot explain the sharp increase. “It’s something specifically local that we need to understand.”
The course of the disease has changed
Even if these numbers are anything but reassuring, there are positive indicators. The Ticino canton pharmacist Giovan Maria Zanini explained a week ago that the current corona variants are less aggressive and the risk of a severe course is therefore lower.
In addition, the immunity of the population has increased significantly, as Merlani said: “Three years ago, zero percent of the population had protective antibodies, now the proportion has risen to 100 percent.” You can still get sick, but you can no longer see the same intensity as in March 2020, when people developed a high fever or severe pneumonia on both sides and had to be intubated. “At that time there were 120 people in the intensive care unit and many people died,” Merlani recalls.
Also, “the average hospital stay is much shorter than it used to be”. It is now mostly older people who are “already weak for other reasons”. Previously, 99 percent of the patients had come to the hospital because of a Covid infection – today many of the patients come “with Covid”. This means that they come in because of other illnesses and then turn out to be infected with the coronavirus.
