Italy starts giving AstraZeneca covid vaccine at Rome airport.

Rome's Fiumicino airport launched a major hub for covid-19 vaccinations today, 11 February, with the capacity to administer 3,000 vaccines per day.

There will be 400 doses the AstraZeneca anti-coronavirus vaccine administered today to private-practice doctors and other healthcare professionals aged between 18 and 55.

The 1,500-sqm hub, located in Fiumicino's long-term parking area, is Italy's first major national covid-19 vaccination centre to open at an airport.

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The initiative is driven by the management company, Aeroporti di Roma (AdR), in collaboration with the Lazio Region, Rome's Spallanzani Institute and the Italian Red Cross.

The centre is set up under marquees divided into 25 vaccination stations, 20 registration areas, 10 rooms for medical checks, a post-vaccination area with 240 seats, and a car park with about 600 reserved spaces.

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It is the latest initiative by the award-winning Rome airport, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, in Italy's battle against the coronavirus.

In August Fiumicino and the capital's smaller airport Ciampino became the first airports in the European Union to receive the Airport Health Accreditation for the fight against the spread of covid-19 from the Airports Council International (ACI).

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In September Fiumicino began offering drive-in coronavirus tests, before becoming the world's first airport to obtain the "COVID-19 5-Star Airport Rating" from Skytrax, the principal rating and assessment company in the international airport sector.

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AdR then launched 'covid-free' flights between Rome and Milan, offering rapid covid-19 tests to passengers departing on certain daily flights between the two Italian cities.

In December the 'covid-free' model was extended to certain Alitalia and Delta flights between Fiumicino and the US.

#Coronavirus: Unità di Crisi Regione Lazio: partite la somministrazione del vaccino AstraZeneca al centro vaccinale di Fiumicino lunga sosta. #SaluteLazio pic.twitter.com/MNpkv6MysK— Salute Lazio (@SaluteLazio) February 11, 2021