Bookings for COVID-19 vaccinations jumped in Italy on Friday after the government made inoculation mandatory for all workers in some of the strictest anti-coronavirus measures adopted in the world. The number of people making appointments more than doubled from the day before in the northeastern region of Veneto, while in Tuscany they almost tripled, according to provisional data.

In Italy's largest region Lombardy, daily bookings jumped to more than 17,000 on Thursday from some 9,500 a day earlier. Data for Friday was not immediately available. Elsewhere, a steady stream of people headed into vaccination centres where bookings were no longer necessary.