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The times of the new Covid vaccination campaign are shortening: the first million doses will arrive from September 25th, mainly Pfizer vaccines and a small supply of the Novavax vaccine. The request to bring forward the timing of the vaccination campaign comes directly from the Ministry of Health which has written to the Regions to inform them of the imminent arrival of doses of the updated vaccine to cover the new variants of Sars-CoV-2. There will be pharmacies and family doctors on track for the administration.
We will start with the very elderly and the very frail
Starting next week, the new updated anti-Covid vaccines against the Xbb variant, currently in circulation (and no longer from 2 October), will be available, as also announced by Minister Orazio Schillaci. While “Subsequent deliveries – we read in the ministry’s communication to the Regions – will in any case take place from the week of 9 October”. The first tranche of vaccines will be primarily intended for the elderly (over 80 and above) and for RSA guests and super fragile patients. As is known, the vaccine is recommended in particular for over 60s, fragile patients, pregnant women and healthcare workers (over 20 million Italians). On track for the new vaccination campaign that will go hand in hand with the flu campaign will be the practices of family doctors – in Italy there are 40 thousand – and the 50 thousand pharmacists who have followed courses to carry out vaccinations.
Doctors and pharmacists protagonists of the new campaign
As mentioned, the channels through which the vaccine will be administered are being defined. “We are evaluating distribution with the Regions: we will probably count – the minister clarified – on pharmacies but above all on general practitioners”. For their part, doctors and pharmacists say they are ready to collaborate in the vaccination campaign. Thanks to the relationship of trust, to the knowledge of the socio-family context, to the widespread presence, general practitioners, comments the general secretary of the Italian Federation of general practitioners Silvestro Scotti, «can better than other actors identify conditions of risk and fragility early ». At the same time, the widespread network of over 19 thousand public and private pharmacies and the over 50 thousand community pharmacists authorized to inoculate vaccines, notes the president of the Federation of Italian Pharmacists’ Orders (Fofi), Andrea Mandelli, «are a resource for the National health service is an irreplaceable health safeguard for Italians, as demonstrated by the growing demand to be vaccinated in pharmacies, recorded during the latest vaccination campaigns against Covid and flu”.