By Angelo Amante
ROME (Reuters) – Italy will fail to met an EU target of vaccinating 80% of citizens aged over 80 by the end of March, a leading health institute said on Thursday, questioning the vaccine policies of many local health authorities.
Some 4.4 million people aged over 80 live in Italy, and just 19.1% of them, or 846,000, have received the recommended double dose, while 27.4% had received an initial COVID-19 jab, the report by the Gimbe institute said.
“The percentage of those who have had twin shots puts Italy at the bottom of Europe,” Gimbe president Nino Cartabellotta told Radio24.
The European Union has said at least 80% of the bloc’s over 80s should be vaccinated by the end of March, while a minimum 70% of the adult population should be vaccinated “by summer 2021”.
The release of the Gimbe data came a day after Prime Minister Mario Draghi complained that Italy’s 20 regions were not all following government directives to give priority to older people, who are most at risk from coronavirus.
“Some (regions) are neglecting their elderly in favour of groups that proclaim priority, probably on the basis of some influence,” Draghi told the Senate, adding that this disparity was “very difficult to accept”.
Like the rest of the European Union, Italy kicked off its vaccination campaign at the end of December, focusing initially on hospital workers and healthcare staff.
Delayed arrivals of promised vaccines, coupled with doubts over whether the AstraZeneca shot was suitable for pensioners, meant the campaign to safeguard the elderly started much later.
“We will not meet the (EU) target because the vaccination of the over 80s began in mid-February and because the regions have administered doses to groups not included in the (government) plan,” Cartabellotta said.
Magistrates, lawyers and university professors are some of the professions that have jumped to the head of the queue in a number of regions, regardless of their age.
Overall, Italy’s vaccination campaign is progressing in line with the EU average, but the government wants to more than double the daily number of jabs by the end of April as it battles to halt a third wave of infections.
On Wednesday, Italy reported 460 coronavirus-related deaths and 21,267 new infections. It has registered over 106,000 deaths since its outbreak emerged in February last year, the second highest toll in Europe after Britain.
(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
