Italy To Start Using J&J Vaccine Wednesday If EU, National Regulators Approve - Reports - UrduPoint

Italy is ready to introduce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the national immunization campaign on Wednesday, provided it was approved by the European Medicines Agency and Italian drug watchdog AIFA, Italian news agency ANSA reported, citing sources.

According to the report, some 184,000 shots of the US-made vaccine are currently stocked at Pratica di Mare airport near Rome awaiting distribution across the country by the national emergency commissioner's office.

If approved for use, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be added to Italy's portfolio alongside the analogs developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca/Oxford.

As of Tuesday, a total of 15.5 million out of 17.7 million vaccine doses at the disposal of the Italian government have been administered. Out of Italy's 60 million population, only 4.5 million people have been fully vaccinated so far.

According to the latest update from the Italian Health Ministry, almost 3.9 million coronavirus cases and 117,243 related death have been confirmed in the country.