NAPLES - A ‘summer of liberation' is approaching, Governor Vincenzo de Luca has said, as Procida nears its target of mass vaccination, with the island’s vaccination centres on Friday opening up their doors for those in their 30s. 

  Operating at about 700 vaccinations a day, the mass vaccination campaign, which began on Wednesday is expected to come to a close on Saturday or Sunday. 

  Procida is the first island to achieve the feted status of ‘covid-free’, with Ischia and Capri aiming to follow close behind, as part of Campania’s plan to open up the region to tourism, a large part of the local economy.

  Capri, with a population of around 12,000, on Friday began vaccination of 50 year olds, and are aiming to have vaccinated 80 percent of the island by Sunday. Ischia, meanwhile, which is home to around 60,000, are awaiting operations on their neighbour Procida to be concluded, in order to get their hands on more doctors and doses, according to Il Mattino.

  Speaking in a live video on Facebook on Friday, Campania’s President Vincenzo De Luca said, “if the yellow zone becomes understood as an irresponsible party zone, in two weeks we won’t become orange, but red. What will happen will depend 50 percent on our behaviour and 50 percent on the vaccination campaign. If we remain responsible, we will have a summer of liberation.”

  Regarding a meeting he had with Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia, De Luca said, "we addressed the principal problems that face an economic industry, that of tourism, which needs important measures for its restart.”

  He continued, “it is a sector that principally needs to plan. As Greece, Spain and Portugal have done, there is a need to incentivise options for its relaunch, starting with a vaccination pass, that we have already started in Campania, and that can the instrument to promote the arrival of vaccinated tourists from abroad. Italy will be able to benefit from a brand that is recognised and appreciated throughout the world, that of ‘covid free Capri’. The principal problem remains, however, the availability of vaccines, a question recently complicated by the fact that Campania has received 211,000 doses fewer than other regions in proportion to the population.” 

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