Covid, 24 hours to V-Day: the situation The first 100 vaccines in Bergamo and Alzano

The anti-Covid vaccine has arrived in Italy: on Christmas Day and with the country locked up, with deserted streets and still 19 thousand cases and 460 deaths in 24 hours. The first 9,750 doses of the drug Pfizer BionTech entered our country aboard a black, temperature-controlled van that crossed the border at the Brennero pass, yesterday at 9:30 a.m. Escorted by the Carabinieri, the vehicle arrived in Rome where it was always under surveillance at an Arma barracks before arriving at the Spallanzani hospital.

However, it will still take 24 hours for the vaccination campaign to begin: the doses to be administered in Rome will remain in Spallanzani; all the others will pass through the hub of the Pratica di Mare military airport where 5 planes, 60 vehicles and about 250 soldiers will be transferred to the other regions so that on the morning of the 27th Vaccine Day can be activated throughout the country . In Lombardy, the doses (1,620) are expected, all of them, in the Niguarda hospital in Milan: the relay will then continue in 11 self-medications of the Areu, which will be delivered in the Bergamo area, both in the Papa Giovanni XXIII hospital and in the hospital Pesenti Fenaroli in Alzano – the first 100 vaccines. First injections in favor of flashes for doctors, nurses and operators, symbol of the fight against Covid on the afternoon of 27.

Plan

Here is the plan drawn up for V-day, the symbolic day of the launch of the vaccination campaign organized for Sunday throughout the European Union: a historic day, which wants to celebrate the first taste of revenge against a virus that Bergamo has brought and the world. “It seemed correct, even from a symbolic point of view, to organize the start of vaccination in all Lombard provinces and also in some emblematic places, including the Alzano Lombardo, Codogno and Pio Albergo Trivulzio hospitals,” said the councilor. of Well-being of the Lombardy Region Giulio Gallera.

But it is an organization, the start-up for the V-day, which will last only one day: the first real phase of the campaign, which will begin in January and which in our province will allow us to vaccinate 30,181 people (of which 5,777 seniors and 24,404 operators), in fact, offers a very different machine.

Machine edited by Giacomo Lucchini, the vaccine man in Lombardy. It is he who interacts with the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency Domenico Arcuri, who has to take charge of the maxi organizational plan that must take into account (also) an extremely complex cold chain. “The first Pfizer deliveries are scheduled for December 28 – says Lucchini – and the start of the campaign should be between December 28 and January 4. We do not exclude that the government is calling for a coordinated national start on January 4, but we are still awaiting confirmation. What we do know is that before the arrival of each supply, which must be done weekly, we will be notified of the delivery date of the next doses, in order to organize the withdrawals. We are ready”.

Hubs

Done, this is how. Unlike what will happen on Sunday for day V, Pfizer will deliver the doses directly to the hubs, that is, to those hospitals equipped with ultra-refrigerators essential to store the vaccine at -75 degrees. In Lombardy there will be 65 in total, of which five in Bergamo (Papa Giovanni XXIIII, Alzano, Treviglio, Seriate and Piario). Once the doses arrive, the poles will be able to begin vaccinating all their personnel, health and non-medical, together with general practitioners, pediatricians, representatives of the emergency services and of the different Crossings: an operation that, depending on the Region, will take a few three weeks. In the week following the start of the campaign in the poles – therefore, in the second week – vaccinations will be extended to the so-called “radial” structures, that is to say, to health establishments throughout the country: in this case too, all employees will be vaccinated. During the third week, however, the campaign will go through the doors of the RSA, to administer the antidote to workers and the elderly.

Transport

However, there is one link in the chain that has not yet been connected: that of the transport between the hubs and the spoke structures. How does the Papa Giovanni hospital vaccine take us to any RSA in the province? “It is the hubs that must organize the transport, presenting us in a preventive manner a plan that highlights any need for means or resources – explains Lucchini -. If they work, we can put Civil Protection or the different Crosses available for delivery. We are waiting for the hubs to send us their organizational plans, including requests and needs ”. An important issue, that of transport: especially if we take into account that it must be organized taking into account the cold chain, quite insidious for Pfizer’s drug (it could be less for Moderna’s antidote, which the EMA should approve on the 6th ). January). If the vaccine from the hub ultracoolers is transported to the territorial centers and the RSA in the thermal containers supplied by Pfizer, it can actually last up to 30 days. But if, on the contrary, it is transferred with ordinary refrigeration units (2-8 degrees), it can only last five days.

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