Italy on Monday surpassed the grim milestone of 100,000 official coronavirus deaths, AFP reports.
Just over a year since it became the first European country to be overwhelmed by COVID-19, Italy's health ministry recorded another 318 virus-related deaths on Monday, taking the total to 100,103.
When the pandemic started, "we could have never imagined that after a year ... the official death toll would have neared the terrible threshold of 100,000," said Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who took over last month.
In a video message that represented his first public statement in three weeks, he added, "The pandemic has not yet been defeated, but with the acceleration of the vaccination plan, we can see a way out."
Italy expects to have 50 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of June, allowing for the vaccination of "at least half of our population" within the next four months, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said Sunday.
Italy will start using the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine on people over the age of 65, while it also has high hopes for the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which could win EU approval later this week.
The country has fully vaccinated only 1.65 million people thus far.