Italy intends to take "
in the coming days
" legal actions against the Pfizer laboratory due to delays in deliveries of its anti-Covid vaccines, the boss of the Italian crisis unit for the pandemic, Domenico Arcuri, announced Tuesday evening.
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“
The protection of the health of Italian citizens is not negotiable,
” he warned in a statement.
“
The vaccination campaign cannot be slowed down, let alone the administration of the second doses to many Italians who have already received the first,
” he added.
On Friday, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech had unexpectedly announced that they would not be able to provide the amount of doses to which they had committed, triggering the wrath of European countries, already criticized for the slowness of the vaccination campaign.
They then assured the next day that they had put in place a "
plan
" to limit the delays in delivery of their vaccine to one week, while Europe feared that the deliveries of doses would weaken for "
three to four weeks
".
However, according to Domenico Arcuri, Rome has been informed by Pfizer that the delivery delays will be prolonged.
Italy, which has seen its deliveries of vaccine vials fall by 29% this week, is particularly concerned about the administration of the second dose of the vaccine to health workers, its first target, after the country has just vaccinated about 1.2 million people.
Pfizer has informed Italy that "
not only will the doses not delivered this week, unilaterally and without notice, not be delivered next week, but in addition there will be a further slight reduction in deliveries
", insured Domenico Arcuri.
Read also: Covid-19 vaccination: schedule, Pfizer and Moderna difference, side effects ... The point to know everything
On Friday, the Italian government commissioner for the coronavirus had indicated that he had "
sent an official response to Pfizer Italy, in which he expressed his disappointment
" and "
asked for the immediate restoration of the quantities to be distributed
".
