Italy starts administering third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

After receiving formal approval from the Medicines Agency (AIFA) of Italy, the nation started distributing booster COVID-19 vaccination injections on September 20, Monday. As the Health Ministry stated earlier this month, the citizens of the country with compromised immune systems will be provided third dosages of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. The third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will not only cover immunocompromised individuals but also the aged and inhabitants of care facilities.

Medical practitioners, as well as health care workers, will also get the booster injection, according to AIFA standards. Though coronavirus vaccines are highly suggested, they are not obligatory in Italy. The third dosage has been made optional. For people with compromised immune systems, AIFA recommends that the third injection be provided at least 28 days following the last dosage.

COVID-19 vaccination in Italy

As per Xinhua, the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine would be regarded as a "booster to maintain an effective immune response" for individuals over 80 who live in care homes, as well as for healthcare professionals. The third vaccine dose will be given with at least 6 months gap after the last dose. While AIFA and the Ministry of Health have emphasised ensuring that the maximum proportion of the population gets inoculated and the administration should consider this to be a national priority. 

According to the DW news, reservations for coronavirus vaccinations increased in Italy this week after the government mandated that all workers will have to provide proof of vaccination, negative testing, or recent recovery from COVID-19. The pandemic commissioner of Italy, Francesco Figliuolo, informed in a statement that there was an overall rise in reservations for the first dosage on a national level, somewhere between 20% and 40%, over the last week.

However, the bookings for the first shot went up to 35% by Saturday. As per government statistics, almost 41 million Italians have been completely inoculated, accounting for nearly 76% of the citizens over the age of 12.

Italy COVID cases

In the previous 24 hours, Italy saw 2405 new COVID-19 cases in the nation. According to the latest COVID numbers provided by the Worldometer, the total number of confirmed viral cases in Italy is 4,638,516, whereas the total number of fatalities due to COVID-19 is 130,354.

More than 4,395,648 have been recovered from the disease. Yet, the average number of COVID instances recorded in the last seven days is 4,187. The number of active cases in the nation is 1,12,514, with 523 in critical condition.     

(Image: AP)