It took the country 13 days to administer the first 500,000 shots and just six to give the next 500,000.
“A heartfelt thanks to citizens and our national health service for the extraordinary response,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a post on social media on Friday.
“Italy is first in the EU for the number of people vaccinated.
“An encouraging figure.
“Let’s keep going in the same way, keeping up our guard at all times.”
As of Friday evening, a total of 1,039,366 vaccinations had been administered in Italy – or 69 per cent of the doses that had been delivered by that date.
Italy’s latest vaccination data, both regional and national, is being continuously updated on a designated website.
Italy is prioritising medical workers and aged care home residents for the vaccine, and it is not yet available to the general public.
Those aged over 80 will be next in line, followed by those aged 60-79, and those suffering from at least one chronic disease.
Vaccines will then be distributed to key workers such as teachers, police, prison wardens
After that, it will be offered to the general population at walk-in centres and specially-designed pavilions.
The government said it was confident most of the population could be vaccinated by September.
The vaccine will be free, and will not be obligatory.
Scientists estimate that 60-90 per cent of a population needs to be vaccinated – possibly every year – to reach herd immunity against the coronavirus and prevent future outbreaks.
As of yet, there’s no data on how many people, if any, have received the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine required to get full immunity.
The companies recommend giving the second dose between 21 and 28 days after the first dose.
