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The first doses to 6.5 million Italians (1.4 million health workers, 570 thousand RSA employees and guests, 4.4 million people over 80 years of age), A hub for distribution in each Region and a serological survey evaluate the quality and duration of protection by coronavirus on the population. From the meeting between the emergency commissioner Domenico Arcuri and the Regions emerge new details on Italian vaccination plan, presented a few days ago by the minister Roberto Speranza in Parliament. The first novelty is the projection in a “representative sample“Of vaccinated” stratified by geographical area, age, sex and health status “to be carried out in the field by the Higher Institute of Health. The objective is to evaluate the” specificity of immune response, the duration of immunological memory and identify the correlates of protection. “The investigation will be carried out immediately.”before vaccination (zero time) and at a distance of one, 6 and 12 monthsOnce the “scientific evidence” of the survey is available, it will be “published and used for information and evaluation purposes.” To the Regions both Arcuri and Minister Boccia They reiterated the need for their immediate involvement, as the European Medicines Agency is likely to grant a first marketing authorization by the end of the year. “Never like at this time – Boccia stressed – the collaborative relationship with the Regions and local authorities will be decisive in contrast with the virus“.
Furthermore, in the first quarter of 2021, they will reach Italy further 28 million doses. And the first to be vaccinated, according to the ministry’s tables, will have to be 6.5 million Italians among the elderly, doctors, nurses and RSA workers. That is why we proceed quickly with the drafting of the plan: it is necessary to organize not only the best logistics for dose storage but also the administration at the territorial level. The first point is that the 3.4 million doses of the vaccine Pfizer (needing a string of extremely cold, between -20 and -70 degrees) should be available by the end of January and will be delivered directly from the company producer in the 300 sites indicated by the government, hospitals and RSA, for the first phase of the campaign that will refer to health personnel and the elderly of the nursing homes, who will be mobile units.
To carry out this first phase, the Ministry of Health has assumed that 20 thousand people between doctors, nurses, health aides, health social workers, administrative staff and even apprentices. The national storage hub, as Arcuri has already explained, will be at the military airport of Pratica di Mare, a protected site where all 202 million doses it is expected to arrive in Italy from January to the first quarter of 2022. Both Pfizer’s and those requiring a standard cold chain (between 2 and 8 degrees) for its conservation. And there will be regional ‘sub-hubs’, probably one for each of the 20 Italian regions, also in military sites – where to transfer the doses with a view to mass administration, the one planned between second and third quarter of 2020 when a total of 131 million doses will arrive (57 between April and June and 74 between July and September).
It is in this second phase that the 1,500 places for the administration that the Regions must indicate: vaccination centers organized ad hoc that might imply, 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 Information systems of the ministry with the regionals, the realization of a health record, the participation of pharmacies and the need for relieve regional staff. Points on which Arcuri basically agreed, assuming for example the use of retired me apprentices to vaccinate Italians.
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