WHO has said that the new coronavirus has not suddenly become less pathogenic. (Representation)
Geneva:
Top scientists, health officials and the WHO rushed Monday to counter claims by a top Italian doctor who said the new coronavirus “no longer exists” in the country.
The dispute arose as Italy prepared for the next step in its gradual easing of a national lockdown imposed three months ago to combat the spread of the deadly virus.
“In reality, the virus no longer exists clinically in Italy,” said Alberto Zangrillo, director of the San Raffaele hospital in Milan.
“The samples taken in the past 10 days have shown a viral load which is absolutely infinitesimal in quantitative terms compared to those taken a month or two months ago,” he said in a television interview on Sunday. RAI.
“Someone has to take responsibility for terrorizing the country,” added Zangrillo.
Milan is the capital of the northern region of Lombardy, which has been hit hard by the pandemic in Italy.
Several specialists, in Italy and abroad, were quick to oppose Zangrillo’s words.
Dr. Oscar MacLean, of the MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research, said that Zangrillo’s claims were “unsupported by scientific literature and also seem fairly implausible for genetic reasons”.
Martin Hibberd, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “In a situation where the number of severe cases is decreasing, it may be time to start observing people with less severe symptoms – giving the impression that the virus is changing. “
“Still a deadly virus”: WHO
And the World Health Organization also pointed out that the new coronavirus had not suddenly become less pathogenic.
“We have to be careful: this is still a deadly virus,” WHO emergency director Michael Ryan told reporters.
“We have to be extremely careful not to give the impression that all of a sudden the virus, of its own free will, decided to be less pathogenic,” said Ryan, who has a background in epidemiology.
“It is not the case at all.”
The head of the Italian National Health Council, Franco Locatelli, said he was “baffled” by Zangrillo’s remarks.
“Just look at the number of new positive cases confirmed each day to see the persistent circulation in Italy of the new coronavirus,” he said.
The director of the prestigious Spallazani Institute of Infectious Diseases in Rome, Giuseppe Ippolito, also said that there was no scientific evidence that the virus had mutated or changed in potency.
The government has insisted that this is one of the most dangerous phases of a pandemic that has killed more than 33,000 people in the country.
He urged people to respect the rules of social distancing and to wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus.
A contact finder to help the country avoid a viral relapse was launched on Monday in four of the country’s 20 regions, and more will follow soon.
As part of the next stage of the reopening of the country, from Wednesday, foreign tourists will again be able to enter Italy and people will be able to move between regions.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
