{"id":110229,"date":"2021-03-22T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=110229"},"modified":"2021-03-22T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T21:05:10","slug":"italys-lombardy-region-dismisses-vaccine-execs-after-campaign-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/italys-lombardy-region-dismisses-vaccine-execs-after-campaign-failures\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy's Lombardy region dismisses vaccine execs after campaign failures"},"content":{"rendered":"
ROME (Reuters) – Lombardy\u2019s regional governor on Monday dismissed the board of a company in charge of coronavirus vaccination bookings, after a series of rollout delays and IT failures in the Italian region worst-hit by the pandemic.<\/p> Lombardy, the country\u2019s wealthiest and most populous area which includes the financial capital Milan, has repeatedly come under fire for its handling of the COVID-19 emergency and was at the epicentre of the first European outbreak in February 2020.<\/p>\n Thousands of residents did not show up for vaccination over the weekend because a digital platform operated by Aria, a company owned by the regional government, failed to send them details of their bookings.<\/p>\n \u201cI have asked the board of Aria to step down. If they refuse to do so I will fire them,\u201d said Lombardy president Attilio Fontana, who is also a member of Matteo Salvini\u2019s right-wing League.<\/p>\n Lombardy accounts for almost a fifth of Italy\u2019s 3.37 million cases and suffered almost 30,000 fatalities out of a national total of 105,000.<\/p>\n Only 1.2 million people, or some 10%, of its 10-million strong population has been inoculated. The region has so far administered just over 78% of the available doses, one of the lowest percentages of the country, government data shows.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch disruptions have caused problems to many citizens and have affected the work of the health operators,\u201d Fontana added.<\/p>\n The move comes after the regional deputy governor, Letizia Moratti, who is close to Silvio Berlusconi\u2019s Forza Italia party, accused Aria of being \u201cinadequate\u201d and \u201cunable to manage reservations in a decent way\u201d, ramping up pressure on Fontana to overhaul its management.<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s vaccination campaign as a whole has been hampered by delays in vaccine supplies and was further slowed last week by a three-day suspension in the use of AstraZeneca shots over concerns about possible blood clotting as side-effects.<\/p>\n Some 1 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be distributed among Italy\u2019s 20 regions within the next 24 hours, the office of the COVID-19 special commissioner said on Monday. Being the most populated, Lombardy is expected to receive the largest share.<\/p>\n The inefficiencies reported in Lombardy over the weekend have forced health operators to personally call people booked for slots. Left-over vaccines were administered to anyone available.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Saturday I was told there were unused vaccines,\u201d said Giuseppe Papa, the mayor of the small Lombardy town of San Bassano. \u201cI personally drove a bus with 20 elderly people to get them vaccinated. They had no bookings and the oldest was 97 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n