A record 600,000 doses of Covid vaccine were administered in Italy on Friday, authorities said, putting the country in second place in Europe for the number of people fully vaccinated.

“Yesterday was marked by a record number of injections in 24 hours which touched the 600,000 mark while the number of doses administered crossed the 37-million mark,” the government body in charge of vaccinations said.

“Italy is in second place in Europe in terms of the number of people fully vaccinated, just behind Germany and ahead of France and Spain,” it added.

It said Friday's record vaccinations were in part due to an increase in the number of vaccination centres which now stood at 2,666 against 1,500 at the start of March, according to AFP.