国际英语新闻:"No doubt COVID-19 vaccination targets will be met": Italian PM

ROME, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Italy will be able to meet the targets planned for the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Thursday.

"The availability of vaccines has not declined, the numbers (of daily jabs) are back again to the level we had before Easter, and following an expected rising trend," he told a press conference.

"I have no doubt the targets will be achieved."

However, the prime minister stressed the campaign must remain focused on the elderly, the high-risk group in the coronavirus pandemic.

"We need to concentrate on these age groups, and the availability of vaccines should allow us to cover all people over 80 in every region and partially also those aged 75 in April," Draghi said.

He acknowledged this might require slowing down vaccinating people aged under 60 momentarily but stressed that it was time "to make a choice."

Italy's COVID-19 vaccination campaign kicked off at the end of December with a slow start. It reached an average of 300,000 jabs per day by the end of March, according to Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, the Extraordinary Commissioner for the Coronavirus Emergency.

The next target would be to administer 500,000 doses daily by the end of April.

He did not give a specific date for lifting the current restrictions, but hoped it would be a matter of weeks, not months.

"I do want to see reopening in the next weeks, but this must be done safely. The faster the vaccination takes place, the sooner we can reopen."

As of Thursday, Italy has registered over 3.7 million coronavirus cases, including 544,330 active infections, according to the Health Ministry.

Recoveries have exceeded 3 million by this week, and added an additional 20,229 on Thursday. A total of 487 new deaths were also recorded over the last 24 hours, bringing the toll to 112,861.

A total of 12 million doses of vaccines have been administered so far, with 3.6 million people immunized with both doses, according to the government.

Some 4.1 million people aged over 80 have received the vaccine (at least one dose).