ROME—Prime Minister Mario Draghi on March 1 fired Italy’s special COVID-19 commissioner Domenico Arcuri and replaced him with an army logistics expert, in a signal the government wanted to speed up vaccinations. The move followed growing complaints about Arcuri’s handling of the crisis and concern that the anti-COVID vaccine campaign was moving forward too slowly. It’s one of Draghi’s first major decisions since becoming premier in February and follows his firing last week of the chief of the civil protection agency. That step was also seen as an attempt to improve Italy’s response to the COVID crisis. The new coronavirus commissioner is General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, a former commander of NATO forces in Kosovo and head of army logistics since 2018. Draghi told parliament in February that he wanted to involve the military in the nationwide vaccine roll-out plan. Italy launched its inoculation campaign at the end of December and …
Read More
RSS Feed | The Epoch Times
