Prevention

Covid, free vaccine for everyone over 60 against the latest variant

Priority groups include the over 60s but also the frail, pregnant and breastfeeding women and healthcare workers, and co-vaccination with influenza prophylaxis will be possible

by Health Review

23 September 2025

2' min read

Key points

What vaccine
Priority categories
Co-administration with anti-flu
Requests to regions

2' min read

With the circular 'Indications and recommendations for the autumn/winter 2025/2026 anti Covid-19 vaccination campaign', the Ministry of Health officially opens the autumn season to combat the coronavirus behind the 2020 pandemic.

Which vaccine

Recalling that Sars-CoV-2 is 'characterised by continuous variations in its genome during replication, giving rise to the continuous appearance of variants and sub-variants' and that vaccines must therefore be adapted accordingly, this year the updated Comirnaty LP.8.1 serum will be used, which has already been authorised by Ema and Aifa and will be distributed to the regions in the coming weeks.

The priority categories

Taking into account the current epidemiological picture, the ministry lines up a number of indications and recommendations for the autumn/winter 2025/2026 vaccination campaign against the disease.

A booster dose of the updated LP.8 vaccine.1 up-to-date will be actively offered to all persons over 60 years of age, residents of long-term care facilities, pregnant, breastfeeding and post-partum women, doctors and other health care personnel, as well as medical and health care professions students in care settings and staff in training.
In addition, between 6 months and 59 years, the vaccine will be offered to all those frail due to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity and oncological diseases, respiratory diseases, renal insufficiency as well as to persons with Down syndrome and recognised severe disabilities, transplant recipients or those waiting to be transplanted, and those with immunodeficiencies.

Moreover, family members, caregivers and cohabitants of severely frail persons are advised to be vaccinated, and even having recently contracted Covid after the previous booster (the booster dose is annual) does not represent a

contraindication to vaccination.

Co-administration with anti-flu

The ministry specifies that it is possible to co-administer the newly updated Covid vaccines with other vaccines (with particular reference to the flu vaccine), subject to any specific indications of use or clinical evaluations.

Requests to the regions

To the Regions that will have to 'strengthen communication and information activities and make it possible to book the Covid-19 vaccination through the regional online platform', the Ministry recommends to 'implement the appropriate organisational measures', with particular reference to the collaboration of general practitioners and paediatricians, pharmacies, and the hospital and territorial specialist network, including long-term care facilities, so as to 'ensure a greater active offer of the vaccination to people at risk of developing serious forms of the disease, thus facilitating the timely adherence to the vaccination campaigns'.

Finally, in the new circular, Health recommends the "respect of the principles of good vaccination practices, the evaluation of the benefit/risk ratio specific to age and gender and the attention in reporting timely any suspected adverse reaction to the pharmacovigilance system of Aifa both by citizens and health professionals"..