ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th October, 2021) At least 90% of Italy's population needs to be vaccinated to keep the COVID-19 pandemic under control, Giovanni Rezza, a senior official at the Italian Health Ministry, said on Monday.
"What the situation with COVID-19 will be this winter depends on various factors, but, above all, on the number of those vaccinated. In order to keep the virus under control at R0 (reproduction rate) within the range of 5-6, we probably need to reach the threshold of 90%," Rezza said at a symposium in Venice, as broadcast by the Tgcom24 news.
The current infection rate of COVID-19 in Italy is one of the lowest in Europe and in the world, but the situation cannot be considered optimal, according to the official.
Last week, Silvio Brusaferro, the head of Italy's National Institute of Health, said that though achieving collective immunity is not the Primary objective at the moment, it is necessary to reduce the circulation of the virus in the country as much as possible.
The Italian authorities initially set a goal to vaccinate 80% of the population by the end of September. This goal was achieved on October 9. As of Monday morning, over 88.7 million vaccine doses have been distributed in the country, according to the latest data from the Italian Health Ministry. Almost 44.4 million citizens have been fully vaccinated, amounting to over 82.1% of the population over the age of 12.
