[ad_1]
On Sunday, the first 9,750 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech will be administered to the largest number of people, among doctors, nurses and health workers, chosen to participate in what the extraordinary commissioner for the coronavirus emergency has called a “symbolic” day of vaccinations, simultaneously with other European countries. The following week, that is, starting on Monday the 28th, Pfizer said it will deliver another 470,000 doses of the vaccine, which will begin the vaccination campaign itself.
Pfizer-BioNTech is the first of the coronavirus vaccines approved by the European Commission, to which others are expected to join in the coming weeks, starting with Moderna, whose administration has already begun in the United States, and on which the authorities Europeans will make a decision in early January. Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be stored at very low temperatures, down to -70 ° C, and will therefore be transported and stored in special freezers (sometimes called cryogenic box) that the different regions are acquiring.
But the first phase of the transport will be managed directly by Pfizer: its special trucks that will depart from the plant in Belgium, and on Sunday they will be escorted by the Carabinieri once they have crossed the border. They will arrive at the Spallanzani hospital in Rome, where they will be placed in 21 freezers, twenty of which will be transported by the Army to as many centers – one per region and autonomous province – where vaccinations will be carried out on Sunday. Among the people who will receive the first doses will be doctors, nurses and health personnel.
Arcuri said Wednesday that he hoped the actual vaccination campaign could begin “in the first days” of the following week, even if there is no precise day yet. To receive the doses in this first phase, which will last in the coming weeks, doctors, nurses and health personnel, personnel who work in hospitals and people living in RSA will be added, for a total of almost 2 million people.
For the Pfizer vaccine it will work like this: the pharmaceutical company will take care of the transport directly to the approximately 300 administration centers that were identified in early December by the autonomous regions and provinces. To identify them, Arcuri had asked the regions to communicate in each province structures capable of storing and managing vaccine doses, and through which at least 2,000 people can be vaccinated in 15 days. Arcuri in the letter to the regions had suggested administering the vaccine directly in hospitals, while for RSAs we will proceed with home vaccination, with special teams of doctors and nurses.
For example, the Piedmont Region has identified 28 hospitals, including the temporary hospital for COVID Valentino patients, in which “an access area, reception, waiting area, five administration areas with 60 workstations each, and one post-administration room for any specific follow-up ». The Emilia-Romagna Region, for its part, has already said that it will place these areas outside the hospitals, or in any case” where users are not expected to enter or exit ” , assuming that “the tensioned structures provided by Civil Protection and the army” or “Sports halls or fairgrounds” are used. The Emilia-Romagna estimate is to reach 10,000 vaccinations per day in the first phase of administration.
Unlike Pfizer’s vaccine logistics, for vaccines for which less powerful refrigerators are sufficient, such as Moderna’s, pharmaceutical companies will transport them to a national storage location, from where they will then be taken to other territorial sites. According to an estimate made by Arcuri, at full capacity the places where the vaccine will be administered in the national territory should reach 1,500. However, it is not yet clear when they will be installed and how many pavilions with primroses will be unveiled a few weeks ago, which will house information centers and also vaccine administration areas.
The categories of people who will receive the vaccine after the first phase will be the oldest age groups in the population, first those over 80 years of age (4.4 million), then those aged 60 to 79 years (13.4 million) and finally, those with at least one chronic comorbidity (7.4 million). Then, it will be the turn of those who perform work considered risky, such as law enforcement or teachers. “Everyone will know in time where and when to get the vaccine,” said Arcuri, who had already explained that the vaccine – free and voluntary – will be administered “on request” at least in the first phase, and not with reservation.
14,949 people responded to the warning with which up to 3,000 doctors and 12,000 nurses and health aides were sought for the vaccination campaign, and another 4,476 are completing the procedure. A “comforting” result according to Arcuri.
One aspect that Arcuri insisted on – because there had been controversy in recent weeks – is the special syringes that Italy bought, a high-precision type with a needle-locking system, called “Luer Lock”. According to Arcuri, they could allow significantly more use of the available vaccine vials. Typically, in fact, the vials supplied by Pfizer are diluted with water and sodium chloride (the physiological solution) to contain a standard 5 doses of 0.3 milliliters to inject into the patient.
But with special syringes you should be able to optimize the doses, also taking advantage of the “residual vaccine” that is normally wasted. This would make it possible to obtain not only 5 doses from each bottle, but 6 or even 7. The FDA, the body that certifies drugs in the United States, has authorized this type of procedure in recent days, which makes it possible to take advantage of the “vaccine.” residue “: could potentially allow 20 to 40 percent of the population to be vaccinated with the same amount of vaccine.
[ad_2]
