18-yr-olds in Rome given 1st dose of Pfizer vaccine

Eighteen-year-old students in Rome were administered their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Rome on Tuesday, ahead of their upcoming final exams.

The vaccination hub at the Porta di Roma Mall on the outskirts of Rome began vaccinating students ahead of their finals which begin in a few weeks.

The exams will take place in person after over a year of mostly remote learning.

The hub, run by the Red Cross, administers around 1,000 vaccines a day, all Pfizer/BioNTech, which was recommended for younger people, Valerio Mogini, the Italian Red Cross Coordinator at the hub explained to the Associated Press.

Currently 12,077,591 people, or little over 20% of the population, are fully vaccinated in Italy and nearly 35 million, over half the Italian population, have received at least one dose.

Italy was one of the countries worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with 4,216,003 confirmed cases and 126,046 deaths according to the World Health Organization, but is reopening gradually, with restaurants and bars allowed to open for indoor seating on Tuesday.