O Italian government announced this Tuesday (17) that the national vaccination campaign during the fall and winter 2024/25 against Covid-19 will use immunizers adapted to the JN.1 variant and will offer a booster dose for risk categories completely free of charge.
The information is contained in a new circular signed by the director general of prevention at the Italian Ministry of Health, Francesco Vaia, and the head of the department, Maria Rosaria Campitiello.
According to the statement, the booster dose will be a single, annual dose, and having contracted a Sars-CoV-2 infection, even recently, after the previous booster dose, does not represent a contraindication.
The document further recommends that Italian regions and autonomous provinces implement general practitioners and pediatricians, pharmacies and local hospital and specialist networks, including long-term care institutions, to make appointments possible through a regional online platform.
Furthermore, it explains that an interval of at least four weeks – 28 days – is needed to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and the Mpox virus.
At the same time, the opposition announced that it will not participate in the creation of the Commission of Inquiry into the management of Covid-19 scheduled for this Wednesday (18). “Currently, there are no conditions and therefore we will not participate,” said the leader of the Democratic Party (PD) group in the Senate, Francesco Boccia.
Opposition representatives have always criticized the commission's objectives and, in recent months, have presented proposals to modify its objectives. (HANDLE)
