[ad_1]
A center for the distribution of vaccines in each region, more than 28 million doses available at the end of March, a serological survey to assess the quality and duration of the response to the vaccine in the population, almost 6.5 million Italians who They are within the ‘priority’ categories to be vaccinated, the possibility that even retired doctors can make a contribution to relieve the staff of local authorities. The Commissioner of Emergencies, Domenico Arcuri, illustrated the latest updates of the vaccine plan to the Regions at the meeting called by the Minister of Regional Affairs, Francesco Boccia. From the screening on a “representative sample” of vaccinated “stratified by geographic area, age, sex and health status” that will be carried out in the field by the Higher Institute of Health.
The objective is to evaluate the “specificity of the immune response, the duration of the immunological memory and to identify the correlates of protection”. The survey will be conducted immediately “before vaccination (time zero) and after one, 6 and 12 months”. Once the “scientific evidence” from the survey is available, it will be “published and used for information and evaluation purposes.” Both the Arcuri and Boccia regions reiterated the need for their immediate involvement, as the European Medicines Agency is likely to grant a first marketing authorization at the end of the year for the first vaccines. “Never like at this time – Boccia stressed – the relationship of collaboration with the Regions and local authorities will be decisive in the fight against the virus.”
Vaccine, suffered health workers and the elderly
Furthermore, in the first quarter of 2021 more than 28 million doses will arrive in Italy. And the first to be vaccinated, according to the ministry’s tables, must be 6.5 million Italians: 1,404,037 health and social workers, 570,287 RSA employees and guests, 4,442,048 elderly people over 80 years of age. Therefore, there is no time to lose and it is necessary to better organize not only logistics for storage but also administration at the territorial level. Starting from a fixed point: the 3.4 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine (which require an extreme cold chain, between -20 and -70 degrees) should be available by the end of January and will be delivered directly from the manufacturing company in the 300 sites designated by the government, hospitals and RSA, for the first phase of the campaign that concerns health personnel and the elderly in nursing homes, who will be vaccinated through mobile units.
To carry out this first phase, the Ministry of Health has hypothesized that 20,000 people are needed, including doctors, nurses, health assistants, social health workers, administrative personnel and even scholarship holders. The national storage center, as Arcuri has already explained, will be at the Pratica di Mare military airport, a protected site through which the 202 million doses expected to arrive in Italy from January to the first quarter of 2022 will transit. Pfizer but also those that require a standard cold chain (between 2 and 8 degrees) for storage. And there will be regional ‘sub-centers’, probably one for each of the 20 Italian regions, also in military sites, where to transfer the doses in view of the massive administration, which is expected between the second and third quarters of 2020 when they will arrive. usually. 131 million doses (57 between April and June and 74 between July and September). And it is in this phase where the 1,500 administration positions that the Regions must indicate will be used: specially organized vaccination centers that could involve, at least this is one of the hypotheses, sports halls, fairs and gyms. Also participating general practitioners and pediatricians and, later on, also pharmacies.
The Regions should also indicate the contact persons who, says the Ministry of Health, “will respond directly to the national coordination structure and will interact with local actors, such as Prevention Departments, to ensure the implementation of regional vaccination plans and its link with the National Vaccination Plan. ”Four requests came from the Regions: the integration of the ministry’s information systems with the regional ones, the creation of a sanitary registry, the participation of pharmacies and the need to relieve regional personnel Points on which Arcuri essentially agreed, assuming precisely the use of retirees and specialists to vaccinate Italians.
Last updated: 21:15
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
[ad_2]
