Health Minister Roberto Speranza told lawmakers in the
Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday that anyone 40 years or older can get the
booster shot starting on Dec. 1.
Italy has already offered boosters to those 60 years old and
older who received their last vaccine dose at least six months earlier.
The country hasn’t been hit as hard in the latest wave of
the coronavirus pandemic as some northern countries including Austria and
Germany as well as several nations in eastern Europe.
Italian authorities are scrambling to keep it that way.
Experts credit in large part Italy’s vaccination rate.
Nearly 84% of those 12 and older and eligible for the shots are fully vaccinated.
Since early in the pandemic, Italy has also required masks
to be worn indoors in places like supermarkets, cinemas, churches and on mass
transit. Other anti-pandemic measures include the requirement starting this
autumn for a so-called Green Pass certification of vaccination, recovery from
COVID-19 or a negative test to access workplaces. The certification was already
required for indoor dining, gyms, museums and theaters.
Announcing the expansion of booster eligibility to those 40
years and up, Speranza called the boosters “an essential piece of our strategy
to combat COVID.”
The minister added that “the more this country succeeds in
bolstering itself in speeding up the administrating of the third dose, the more
we will be able to manage the end of autumn and winter, which pose a wide open
challenge and won’t easy to handle.”
All those who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson
vaccine are also eligible for a booster, regardless of age.
So far nearly 40% of people already eligible for the
boosters in Italy have gotten the third dose, according to Italian government
figures.
Doctors and virus experts have said about 25% of all recent
cases in Italy have occurred among minors, and authorities are hoping for
regulatory approval soon for COVID-19 vaccines for those 5 through 11 years
old.
Among the hardest hit regions recently has been Friuli
Venezia Giulia, with clusters of virus outbreak linked to frequent protests in
the port city of Trieste by unmasked and unvaccinated demonstrators against the
Green Pass workplace requirement. -AP
0 comments:
Post a Comment