A mixed model in which the hubs (one for every 50,000 inhabitants) will be integrated by other vaccination points at permanent health facilities such as hospitals, health centers, general practitioners and pharmacies. This is what the director of the vaccination campaign completion unit, General Tommaso Petroni, is aiming at in the guidelines for the second booster (fourth dose), intended for over 60s, sent to regions and autonomous provinces. All this after the circular of 11 July 2022 of the Ministry of Health, on the extension of the vaccine audience.
Regions and provinces called to mobilize
To complete the plan of the second recall of the anti-Covid vaccine for the over 60, and taking into account the audience (estimated at about 12 million from which to subtract the recovered), the goal is ambitious: to reach a national target of daily administrations “that it should be at least 100,000 doses ”. And for this reason, the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces are invited to set up a dedicated organization.
The goal is 100 thousand doses a day but we are under 50 thousand
But we will have to run because the current numbers are low. Based on the calculations of Lab24, the latest consolidated data available, relating to 12 July, is 26 thousand administrations. The (still partial) figure for 13 July is instead of 36 thousand injections. This is why in the document sent by Petroni to the regions, the governors are invited “to set up a dedicated organization” to reach the national target of daily administrations. Initial membership looks encouraging. “There are already over 3,000 in the first half hour bookings for the fourth dose aimed at over 60s and people with frailty,” let the Lazio Region Health Department know.
Drive-throughs for doses reopened
Many territories, from Belluno to Terni, have already reopened the drive-through for doses. The same structures could soon be used in Lazio also for swabs (pharmacies and laboratories remain the places that produce the largest number of tests), where in the meantime the vaccination hubs in Termini, Piazzale Ostiense, La Vela and Cinecittà have been reactivated. In the region there has been an increase in administrations of about 40%, mainly fourth doses.
The role of family doctors
The estimated audience of those who will be able to take the fourth dose is about 12 million from which, however, those who are cured must be subtracted. And the involvement of family doctors also remains vital: “in an epidemiological scenario characterized by a highly diversified immunization of the population – writes Petroni – resulting in many cases from vaccinations and previous infections, the involvement of the general practitioner appears fundamental to propose to the single individual the most suitable schedule “