MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th March, 2021) Health Minister Roberto Speranza said during a meeting with regional authorities on Friday that the Italian government has requested extending the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to cover people over 65 years old, the Ansa news agency reported on Friday, citing sources.
Currently, the country gives the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to those aged under 65.
The minister also mentioned that Italy would also surpass an important threshold of five-million administered vaccines on Friday and proposed setting up a kind of vaccine solidarity fund by allocating 1-2 percent of the doses to the areas where the disease is spreading especially fast, in part because of new strains of the virus.
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 vaccine shots daily, which still falls short of meeting the lofty goal.
