Coronavirus, the eight-point vaccine plan

• Hope: "First vaccines available from January, voluntary and free"

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02 December 2020

From timing to logistics, from the categories to be immunized as a priority to the forces in the field to implement what promises to be the largest vaccination campaign ever carried out in Italy.

There are eight 'axes' of the Strategic Plan for Covid vaccines illustrated today first in the Senate and then in the Chamber by the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza.

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: the purchase of the vaccine is centralized and will be given free of charge to all Italians.

"No inequality will be admissible in the vaccination campaign".

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: Italy has optioned 202,573,000 doses of the vaccine, which would represent a sufficiently large supply to potentially vaccinate the entire population and maintain safety stocks.

It is very likely that two doses will be needed for each vaccination, shortly thereafter.

If all the authorization processes are successful, Italy could count on the availability of the following doses: for the contract with AstraZeneca 40.38 million doses, for the contract with Johnson & Johnson 26.92 million, for the contract with Sanofi 40.38 million, for the contract with Pfeizer-BioNTech 26.92 million, for the contract with CureVac 30.285 million, for the contract with Moderna 10.768 million.

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: there are the conditions for the EMA to grant a first marketing authorization for the vaccine already within the year.

To date, two dates have been indicated by Ema which could express itself on December 29 on the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine and on January 12 on the Moderna vaccine.

These two companies in the first quarter of 2021 by contract should provide Italy respectively 8.749 million doses and 1.346.000 doses.

The heart of the vaccination campaign will be between next spring and summer.

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: three categories equal to about 20 million people will be vaccinated as a priority, in the initial stages.

These are health and social health workers, residents and staff of the RSA;

people in old age.

We will then proceed to the other categories of the population, including those belonging to essential services such as teachers and school staff, the police, the staff of prisons and community places.

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: a distribution model with a national storage site and a series of territorial sites will be adopted for vaccines with standard cold chain.

Vaccines that instead require an extreme cold chain will be delivered directly by the manufacturer to 300 vaccination points throughout the area.

The Armed Forces will be involved for the distribution.

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: in the initial phase of the vaccination campaign, centralized vaccination management is envisaged, with the identification of hospital sites and the use of mobile units.

The staff of the vaccination units will be made up of doctors, nurses, health assistants, socio-health workers and administrative support staff. At the moment, a maximum need of about 20,000 people is estimated.

In addition, thousands of young medical graduates, enrolled in the first years of specialization schools, will participate in the campaign, which will represent a part of their training.

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: it will be interfaced with the various regional and national systems, in order to optimize all the organizational and management processes, from supplies to the planning and management of vaccination sessions.

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: to ensure the highest level of safety during the vaccination campaign.

The goal is to prepare additional surveillance on the safety of the vaccines themselves, monitoring any adverse events to the new Covid vaccines.

Furthermore, the Italian Medicines Agency will launch independent studies and will equip itself with a specific scientific committee for the entire period of the vaccination campaign.