50% of Italy's population fully vaccinated against COVID-19

Over half of the population targeted by Italy's coronavirus vaccination campaign has already been fully immunized, the country's health authorities said here on Monday, reported Xinhua.

As of July 19, over 27 million people have been administered two COVID-19 vaccine doses, which equals 50.21 percent of the population aged over 12, the health ministry said.

The campaign has used 61.5 million doses of the four coronavirus vaccines currently authorized in the country -- those produced by Pfizer/BioNTech, Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca), Moderna and Janssen.

After a slow start in early January 2021, the campaign gained steam in spring.

Considering both the fully immunized and those who received at least one dose, the largest group is those aged between 50 and 59 with 12.5 million vaccine doses administered, followed by those in the 60-69 age group, 70-79 age group, 40-49 age group, according to separate government statistics.

Meanwhile, the country is witnessing a fresh spike in coronavirus infections after several weeks of decrease, which the National Health Institute (ISS) has mainly ascribed to the effects of the Delta virus variant. While the number of new infections has been on the increase, no significant jump has been reported in the number of deaths and hospitalizations (either in normal COVID-19 wards or in intensive care units).

Overall, Italy has had over 4.2 million coronavirus cases so far, including 46,113 active infections and 127,867 fatalities.