Italy slaps its fist on the table after the announcement of delays in delivery of anti-Covid vaccines from the Pfizer laboratory.
The country could take legal actions against the pharmaceutical group "in the coming days".
"The protection of the health of Italian citizens is not negotiable" warned Domenico Arcuri, the boss of the Italian crisis unit for the pandemic.
And to add: "the vaccination campaign cannot be slowed down, let alone for the administration of the second doses to many Italians who have already received the first.
"
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 the delivery of their vaccine to one week, while Europe feared that the delivery of doses would weaken for "three to four weeks".
The second dose at the heart of concerns
But, according to Domenico Arcuri, the delays in deliveries could be prolonged.
Already, Italy has seen its bottle deliveries fall by 29% this week.
The administration of the second dose of the vaccine to health workers, its first target, when the country has just vaccinated around 1.2 million people could thus be called into question.
"Pfizer has informed Italy that not only the doses which have not been delivered this week, unilaterally and without notice, will not be delivered next week, but in addition there will be a further slight reduction in deliveries", explained the boss of the crisis unit who asks for "immediate restoration of the quantities to be distributed."
"
