Italy will restart using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Friday following a positive response by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on its benefits compared to possible risks.

Italy was among several countries in Europe that earlier this week temporarily suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, after reports of adverse effects and a few cases of blood issues among people who had just received the shots.

“The government’s priority remains to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” Premier Mario Draghi said in a brief statement following the EMA decision.

The Draghi government is under pressure to speed up its vaccine campaign, which was forced to slow down due to delays in producers’ supplies.

Italy reported 423 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, the Health Ministry said, while the daily toll of new infections rose to 24,935 from 23,059 a day before.

The country – one of the first hit hard by the pandemic in Europe – has registered 103,855 deaths related to COVID-19 since its outbreak in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after the UK and the seventh-highest in the world.

The Draghi government aims at speeding up the vaccination campaign to reach herd immunity by the end of the summer, while trying to find new ways to support citizens and businesses hit by an unprecedented economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic./aa