Italy expects to be able to vaccinate people against Covid-19 on a large scale early next year. “We finally have landed insight.

We have an exact route to a safe haven,” Health Minister Roberto Speranza told the Senate. “It seems likely that we will have access to the first vaccines from January.”

Speranza said his government had taken an option to purchase 202 million corona vaccines from various companies.

We are still waiting for the European regulator to give the green light for the use of these resources. Italians do not have to pay afterwards to be vaccinated against the contagious virus.

Italy has reported the deaths of more than 56,000 patients since the start of the pandemic. In Europe, only the United Kingdom has recorded more deaths.

There, the authorities want to start using the corona vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech next week.

Speranza expects that the focus of the Italian vaccination campaign will be in the spring and summer. Medical staff and the elderly come first. The minister also said he saw a role for the military in the distribution of vaccines.