Almost 10 months after the first Italian patient tested positive for the new coronavirus, Italy vaccinated the first residents against Covid-19, Reuters reports.

Three health workers at the Rome Spallanzani hospital were inoculated with the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, a statement by the commissioner for the epidemic Domenico Arcuri said.

“The vaccine went very well and it was an exciting, historical moment,” 29-year-old nurse Claudia Alivernini told state-owned television Rai News24. “It is the beginning of the end and I hope to be the first of over 60 million Italians”.

The vaccine will be free of charge and health workers and elderly people will be the first to be offered the voluntary inoculation. Around 9,750 doses have already arrived in Italy and another 470,000 are expected to arrive from next week, the health ministry said.

To aid the roll out of the vaccine, temporary solar-powered healthcare pavilions will pop up in town squares around the country, designed to look like five-petalled primrose flowers, a symbol of spring.