Italy is expanding the number of people eligible for a booster vaccine starting from Dec. 1 as the fourth wave in the Covid-19 pandemic grips Europe.
Health Minister Roberto Speranza said that people over 40 can get the booster starting on Dec. 1.
Italy has already offered boosters to those 60 years old and older who received their last vaccine dose at least six months earlier.
The country hasn’t been hit as hard in the latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic as some northern countries including Austria and Germany as well as several nations in eastern Europe.
Italy is scrambling to keep it that way.
Fourth Wave?
The World Heath Organisation (WHO) has earlier warned that Europe could see ‘another half million Covid-19 deaths’ by February.
The rising number of cases of Covid-19 in Europe is of “grave concern” and the region could see another half a million deaths by early next year, the WHO said in a statement issued on Thursday.
With 78 million cases in the WHO’s European region—which spans 53 countries and territories and includes several nations in Central Asia—the cumulative toll now exceeded that of South East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean region, the Western Pacific, and Africa combined, the organisation said.
“We are, once again, at the epicentre,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told a press conference.
Kluge noted that the “current pace of transmission across the 53 countries of the European Region is of grave concern”.
According to “one reliable projection” the current trajectory would mean “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February, Kluge added.
The agency observed an increase “across all age groups”, he said.
Kluge blamed the soaring caseload on “insufficient vaccination coverage” and “the relaxation of public health and social measures”.
Italy witnessed a swift 3rd wave unlike some northern countries including Austria and Germany, and several nations in eastern Europe.
