THE website of Lazio, the Italian region that includes Rome, was down today after being hit by a cyberattack, meaning that people could no longer use it to book a Covid-19 vaccine.

“A hacker attack is underway… all defence and verification operations are ongoing to avoid prolonging the cut in services,” the region said on its Twitter account.

“Operations concerning vaccinations may be slowed down.”

The region’s website was still down this morning.

The site for booking vaccinations was also unavailable.

The highly contagious Delta variant represents about 80% of new Covid-19 cases in Lazio, where 66% of the adult population have been vaccinated, the regional health commissioner Alessio D’Amato said earlier this week.

Nationwide, 60% of the population over 12 years old have been fully vaccinated, with 68.5 million total doses administered, the health ministry’s website said today. – AFP, August 1, 2021.