Immediately 300.000 vaccinated a day, which will then become 500.000 from mid-April, according to the new vaccination plan launched by Commissioner Paolo Figliuolo: if all goes according to plan, Italians will be immunized in mid- or at the latest at the end of September. In fact, around the 15th, or shortly after, it is expected the achievement of the fateful herd immunity: "The coverage of 80 percent of the population, including the under 16s", as specified in the new national vaccination plan released on Saturday.
For this to happen, in the six months that separate us from that moment, the largest public health and logistics effort ever imagined will be deployed: 500 administrations a day, three times more than what is done now. All parts of the state participate: the army, the Carabinieri, the police forces, the fire brigade in logistics and security. But also the Civil Protection, the Regions, the Municipalities, the Red Cross. In addition to general practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, sports doctors and trainees will be called to make the injections. Buildings, theatres, barracks and military citadels such as the Cecchignola in Rome, schools, production sites and large-scale distribution will be able to become vaccination hubs.
The big companies (Eni, Poste, Enel, Stellantis) will take the field with their internal doctors. The Italian Bishops' Conference has also undertaken to make parishes and oratories available. All of this, however, starting from one assumption: that the promised vaccines arrive. In the next semester we are waiting for 137 million doses: 52 million from April to June, the rest by September. Most deliveries will be from Pfizer (61 million), then AstraZeneca (25 million), Johnson & Johnson (23) which has the characteristic of being single-dose, Moderna (17) and Curevac (14).
The big problem with the first phase of the immunization campaign was the supply cuts: 16 million vaccines were expected by March 30, half of them have been delivered to date. The others should arrive by the end of the month. But, given the unfavorable precedents, Commissioner Figliuolo he drew up the herd immunity timetable, also calculating a certain quota of possible non-delivery.
