Outrage in Italy as Moderna reduces jabs delivery

Italy's virus czar said pharmaceutical company Moderna officially advised the government on Friday that it would reduce a planned upcoming vaccine delivery to Italy by 20%, fuelling increasing outrage as delays have forced the country to drastically slow down its vaccine campaign.

Domenico Arcuri expressed ''astonishment, concern and discomfort" at Moderna's decision, noting that it came after both Pfizer and AstraZeneca announced similar delays in scheduled deliveries.

The Italian government has formally advised Pfizer it was weighing legal measures.

Arcuri said Moderna told the government the February 8 deliveries would be 132,000 doses instead of a planned 166,000.

The reduced deliveries meant that Italy's plan to start vaccinating Italians over age 80 on a mass scale has been delayed by several weeks, and reduced by more than half the number of shots administered each day.

Italy concentrated the first weeks of its vaccination campaign on healthcare workers, with about one million of the 1.7 million doses administered so far going to doctors and nurses.