New Delhi (NVI): A 29-year-old nurse in Rome was the first to receive Covid-19 vaccine in Italy as the country began with its massive vaccination campaign today with the arrival of nearly 10,000 doses.
Italian Nurse Claudia Alivernini, who works at Rome’s Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases, was the first person in the country to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, reports in foreign media said.
The Italian government has given priority to health staff and workers and elderly residents in nursing homes to get the vaccines in the first phase. After this, those over 80 will get the doses, then 60- to 70-year-olds, and those who suffer from chronic illnesses.
After this, the general population will be vaccinated, starting with school staff, police forces and prison workers. With more than 50% of Italians now saying that they will get inoculated, and that number on the rise, the hope is that in nine months, Italy will reach herd immunity with 70% of the population vaccinated, a total of 42 million people.
According to reports, the country’s first allocated 9,750 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Salvo D’Acquisto military base on December 25. The first batch of vaccines was escorted by police cars to the Spallanzani hospital in Rome.
Notably, Italy has been placed under new COVID-19 restrictions over the Christmas and New Year periods from December 24, in an effort to combat a rise in coronavirus cases.
Under the new restrictions, non-essential shops, restaurants and bars will remain closed and Italians only allowed to travel for work, health, and emergency reasons till January 6.
-ARK
