ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2021) Italy has approved giving a single shot of a coronavirus vaccine to recovered patients provided that they recovered at least three months prior, the country's health ministry said on Thursday.
According to the ministry, the initiative has already received the support of the Italian Higher Health Council, the ministry's senior advisory body.
"Vaccination [with a single dose] is to be done no earlier than three months after a diagnosed infection and preferably six months after it," the ministry said in a statement, signed by Giovanni Rezza, the head of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health, which operates under the health ministry.
Meanwhile, the ministry allowed for reconsidering the practice in case of the emergence of viral strains that pose an increased threat of repeated infection.
The Italian authorities have set an objective to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the population and achieve herd immunity by early autumn. The country has been ratcheting up its vaccination campaign, with over 120,000 people getting a vaccine daily, which is still not enough to meet the lofty goal.
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 4.7 million doses have been administered in Italy and 1.5 million people have received both shots.
