Italy has threatened to sue Pfizer for its continued coronavirus vaccine delivery delays.
Officials said talks with the company hadn't produced the "desired results" and further delays may force the country to resort to legal action.
Continued delays of vaccine deliveries have placed Italy's coronavirus vaccination program at a near standstill. Officials said that if not enough doses arrive, they could be forced to halt the vaccinations altogether.
"We received 29% fewer doses this week, and there will be a further 20% decline next week," Italy's head of its vaccination program, Domenico Arcuri, said.
Since the start of the week, vaccinations across Italy have significantly slowed down owing to a lack of supply. The pace of vaccinations slowed from 80,000 in the past week to just 28,000 this week. Italy, which aims to inoculate its entire population by this fall, has only vaccinated around 1.3 million people - or around 2.1% of its population.
Italy officials said Pfizer had reassured customers that its pace of deliveries will pick up. However, officials remained unconvinced.
Denmark also criticized Pfizer earlier in the week for failing to meet its promised deliveries. Late last week, Pfizer issued a statement informing customers that it would be temporarily halting production at its factory in Belgium due to renovations. The company said that once the renovations are completed, the facility should be able to produce more vaccines starting next month.
Other European Union member countries are also struggling to meet their goals in the race to vaccinate citizens. Most of Europe is lagging behind the U.S. and the UK in terms of the number of people successfully vaccinated.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said Thursday that EU member countries would need to consider purchasing vaccines from other suppliers and producers in order to meet the block's target. The EU set a goal of vaccinating 70% of the entire block's population by the summer.
Nauseda said that if the countries continued to rely on Pfizer, the block may only be able to immunize around 25% to 30% of the population by summer.
