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VACCINATION

‘We need ammunition’: Jabs for over-60s postponed as Italian regions run out of vaccine doses

From Trento to Puglia, Italian regional health services are reporting shortages in the supply of vaccines which mean first jabs have been delayed.

Published: 27 April 2021 18:13 CEST
Updated: 28 April 2021 16:48 CEST
'We need ammunition': Jabs for over-60s postponed as Italian regions run out of vaccine doses
Photo: Photo: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP

Many of those who were scheduled to get their first Covid jab in Italy this week turned up for appointments to find their vaccination centre had run out of doses, or was closed without explanation.

Several readers in the southern region of Puglia said their appointments for a first jab had been postponed – or their vaccination centre was closed when they arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“I took my sister to Ceglia Messapica in Brindisi for her vaccination, and we arrived to find the place locked up. No one there, and many people outside very upset. A small notice on the locked gates saying ‘no vaccine’,” reader John Priestley said.

Another reader in the Bari province said she had turned up at her vaccination centre to find it open, but with no vaccine doses available.

“The staff member was very apologetic, but they had run out of AstraZeneca, which is what I was to have as I am in the over-60s age group,” she said. “They said I will hear from the ASL (local health authority) about a new appointment.”

Local newspapers reported that vaccines for the 60-69 age group were on pause in the Puglia region as its stocks of the AstraZeneca vaccine are running low.

“We have very few doses. If we had the doses we would have already finished vaccinating everyone in Puglia,” the region’s governor Michele Emiliano stated on Tuesday.

Similar problems have been reported from north to south, with eight regions now running low on vaccine doses.

Overall, of the 20 million doses distributed within Italy so far, 89% have now been used.

In Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Marche, Molise, Piedmont, Puglia and Veneto, the figure is over 90% on Tuesday, according to analysis by newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

Residents also reported that other regions including Tuscany suspending new appointments for older age groups.

Just 590,000 doses of Pfizer remain in Italy, and the autonomous province of Trento has none left at all.

There are 724,000 AstraZeneca shots – Puglia has the fewest, with around 7,000 doses left in stock in the region on Tuesday.

AstraZeneca has been recommended for use on over-60s only in Italy, as the government this month focused efforts on vaccinating older age groups.

Empty vials of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP

The governor of Piedmont said the region is also “running out” of doses.

“Our supplies are running low again. We’re waiting for deliveries, because Piedmont is ready to vaccinate 40,000 people a day. We need ammunition,” governor Alberto Cirio told Il Sole 24 ore.

Another delay to the country’s vaccine rollout is now likely as appointments for first jabs are being postponed by one or two weeks in many parts of the country.

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More deliveries are expected to reach regions from Wednesday. However, Veneto regional governor Luza Zaia complained that the region gets through “a week’s supply in five days”.

The Italian government’s Covid emergency commissioner, General Francesco Figliuolo, stated during his visit to the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia on Tuesday that vaccine doses are now arriving “in sufficient quantities”.

“On April 29th, two million doses will arrive which will be usable between April 30th and May 1st,” he said.

He added that up to 2.7 million more doses would then arrive by early May.

“I just spoke to the president of AstraZeneca who confirmed these numbers, but did not give me delivery dates from May 8th onwards,” he said.

Figliuolo said the country’s vaccination programme will speed up “significantly” with more deliveries in May, after missing its target of having half a million doses administered daily before the end of April.

Italy has given a total of 18.2 million shots so far and has 5.3 million people fully vaccinated, official figures show.

The chart below shows the total number of doses administered, adding up both first and second jabs.

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HEALTH

Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The World Health Organization's European office warned on Tuesday the risk of Covid-19 has not gone away, saying it was still responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a week in the region. And the real figure may be much higher.

Published: 27 June 2023 13:27 CEST
Covid-19 still causing 1,000 deaths a week in Europe, WHO warns

The global health body on May 5 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer deemed a “global health emergency.”

“Whilst it may not be a global public health emergency, however, Covid-19 has not gone away,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge told reporters.

The WHO’s European region comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia.

“Close to 1,000 new Covid-19 deaths continue to occur across the region every week, and this is an underestimate due to a drop in countries regularly reporting Covid-19 deaths to WHO,” Kluge added, and urged authorities to ensure vaccination coverage of at least 70 percent for vulnerable groups.

Kluge also said estimates showed that one in 30, or some 36 million people, in the region had experienced so called “long Covid” in the last three years, which “remains a complex condition we still know very little about.”

“Unless we develop comprehensive diagnostics and treatment for long Covid, we will never truly recover from the pandemic,” Kluge said, encouraging more research in the area which he called an under-recognised condition.

Most countries in Europe have dropped all Covid safety restrictions but some face mask rules remain in place in certain countries in places like hospitals.

Although Spain announced this week that face masks will no longer be required in certain healthcare settings, including hospitals and pharmacies, with a couple of exceptions.

Sweden will from July 1st remove some of its remaining Covid recommendations for the public, including advice to stay home and avoid close contact with others if you’re ill or have Covid symptoms.

The health body also urged vigilance in the face of a resurgence of mpox, having recorded 22 new cases across the region in May, and the health impact of heat waves.

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