Pfizer vaccine, first 300 distribution points identified

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November 24, 2020 There are 300 points throughout Italy where the first 3.4 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine will be distributed, which from the end of January should allow 1.7 million Italians to be vaccinated.

On the other hand, what will be the first categories to receive the vaccine will be the Minister of Health Roberto Speranza, who will submit the choices to Parliament, said the Emergency Commissioner Domenico Arcuri in recent days. 

The list, reports Ansa, was sent by all regions to the Commissioner and includes both hospitals capable of storing and administering the vaccine and RSAs, which will be served through mobile units. 

In the letter sent to the Regions with which he asked the presidents to provide the list of facilities suitable for distribution and administration, the Commissioner stressed that "it appears a priority to safeguard those places which during the pandemic represented the main channel of contagion and spread of the viruses, such as, by way of example, hospitals and residential facilities for the elderly. To this end, it could be envisaged in this first phase to administer the vaccine directly in hospitals and, through mobile units, in residential facilities for the elderly ".

delivery Pfizer will deliver the vaccine to the 300 points identified directly, "to guarantee its integrity", in storage bags containing 5 boxes of 975 doses each.

Once at its destination, the vaccine can be stored for a further 15 days in the bags or six months in cold storage at a temperature of -75 ° C.

Each hospital unit identified, the letter reads, "must be able to vaccinate at least two thousand people (or more people but with multiples of a thousand) in 15 days".

As for the Rsa, the vaccine will be administered through the mobile units that must reach them "in no more than 30-60 minutes from one of the nearest hospitals". 

The Regions, in their reply to the Commissioner, provided a broader list of the 300 points identified.

It will now be up to the Arcuri offices to select the most suitable ones and keep the rest available for the second phase, that of mass vaccination scheduled for September 2021.

"For the other vaccines arriving for all other categories of citizens - says the letter from Arcuri to the Regions - different methods of administration will be provided, in line with the ordinary vaccination management, through a large-scale campaign "also using drive in or, but they are still hypotheses, also sports halls, fairs and gyms , "starting with people with a high level of frailty". 

The Commissioner for the Emergency has also launched the tender for the purchase of over 100 million syringes for the administration of the anti Covid vaccine.

Companies interested in the tender will have 15 days from the publication

of the request to submit offers.

The announcement, the Commissioner's offices underline, was launched "pending completion of the 'joint

procurement'

procedure by

the European Commission, to find on the market all the products necessary for the

anti-Covid vaccination

campaign

".

The Commissioner also announced the procedure for the purchase of over 5 million ampoules of

saline

diluent

, necessary for the administration of certain types of vaccines.