Italy's health minister asks to use Astrazeneca vaccine for over 65s

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy has asked to verify whether it was possible to extend the use of Astrazeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to people over the age of 65, a spokesman for the health minister said on Friday.

When the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use by EU regulators earlier this year, many EU countries including France, Germany and Italy said it should not be given to the elderly, citing a lack of sufficient data.

But France and others, which lag far behind Britain with their vaccination campaigns, have also now moved to allow their elderly citizens to receive AstraZeneca shots following a Scottish study, which showed a markedly reduced risk of a serious course of illness from COVID-19 across all age groups following vaccination.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, writing by Maria Pia Quaglia, editing by Agnieszka Flak)