Figliuolo said the goal is “to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population by September this year, including people aged 12 to 15, a total of 54.3 million Italians”.
“We must not waste anything in terms of resources, people, time and means,” he told a parliamentary hearing.
“Italy has everything, we just need to know how to put it together and in a coordinated manner.”
Figliuolo said that to reach the September target, Italy would need to keep vaccinating at an average rate of half a million doses per day and would need to continue to prioritise people in older and at-risk categories.
Italian local health authorities were allowed to begin offering vaccine appointments to all people over the age of 12 from Thursday, though only a handful of regional authorities were immediately able to extend their campaign to all age groups.
The Pfizer vaccine is currently authorized for use on people aged 12 to 15, while the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is currently considering approving the use of Moderna’s vaccine on adolescents.
As of Tuesday morning, some 13 million people in Italy were fully vaccinated, according to the latest official data.
The country has administered more than 38 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines overall, with almost one in four people in Italy (24 per cent) having received at least one dose.
The announcement by Figliuolo comes the same day that four more Italian regions enter the lowest-risk white zone: Abruzzo, Liguria, Umbria and Veneto now join Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Molise and Sardinia.
The nationwide curfew – which does not apply in white zones – was also pushed back to midnight in the rest of the country, currently classified as a moderate-risk “yellow” zone.
The easing of the curfew coincides with a record number of COVID-19 vaccinations in Italy over the weekend, with 1.2 million jabs administered over the 48 hours between Friday and Saturday.
