Prime Minister Mario Draghi promised days ago that "whatever the final decision of the EMA" on AstraZeneca, "the vaccination campaign will continue with renewed intensity".
And now, pending the final ruling on Thursday by the European Medicines Agency on the Anglo-Swedish vaccine, estimates are being made on the possible impact of the suspension decided by the Italian Agency (Aifa).
Immediate consequences, with tens of thousands of bookings for the administration of AstraZeneca skipped - 7 thousand a day in Lazio alone, over a third of the daily total - and much more serious if the stop were to continue or even become definitive.
Not to mention the psychosis effect that the news of these days - between suspicious deaths and precautionary intervention by the main European countries - could generate in the population even in the event of resumption of use.
On the day in which Italy exceeds two million vaccinated with booster, just over 3% of the total, it is calculated on data from the Ministry of Health that by the end of March without AstraZeneca there would be a risk of passing from over 7 million doses delivered ( including those of Pfizer and Moderna) to just over 4 million.
Sources of the emergency commissioner downsize the blackest forecasts, underlining that AstraZeneca does not represent the largest part of the expected supplies.
General Francesco Figliuolo had already assured that in case of delays in the deliveries of Astrazeneca he could have compensated with Pfizer, but now the use of the Oxford product itself is under discussion - at least until Thursday.
Despite all the experts continue to reassure about its use.
Mass vaccination under the new national plan is expected to take off in mid-April, with the arrival of millions of vials of the US Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.
"Set fire to all the powders and close the game" in a few months, so yesterday Figliuolo.
For now we are dealing with the cancellations of the reservations of citizens to whom AstraZeneca was destined, passed from the use in the 18-55 age group to that up to 65 years and finally also for the over 65. In addition to Lazio, one of the Regions with the best vaccination performance, even Tuscany, even among the virtuous ones, risks having to cancel 34,000 appointments in a week.
And Lombardy, which had to get back on top after several problems in the campaign, has postponed 33,500 vaccinations between tomorrow and Thursday.
In Italy so far almost 1.1 million people have received the first injection of Astrazeneca, which provides for a much more distant booster than the other vaccines, at three months.
The problem of the second dose therefore does not arise immediately, as the use of the vaccine also made in Pomezia (Rome) began on 11 February (second dose in May).
"We are confident that they will receive the recall on schedule," said Gianni Rezza of the Higher Institute of Health (Iss).
The AstraZeneca case overshadowed the official inauguration of the first Defense drive-through in Milan, already active since Friday and which should reach 2,000 vaccinated without getting out of the car a day.
In recent days the teachers had been summoned, to whom AstraZeneca mostly goes.