A nurse at Rome's Spallanzani hospital, a specialist centre for infectious diseases, will become the first person in Italy to receive the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine. The female nurse will be among the five members of staff at the Spallanzani, including two doctors, a healthcare social worker and a researcher, to get the vaccine when the nationwide vaccination campaign begins on 27 December.

The Spallanzani, which has played a central role in battling Italy's coronavirus crisis, will act initially as the nation's central hub for the distribution of the Pfizer vaccine, which was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on 21 December.