But Germany, home to BioNTech which developed the vaccine with Pfizer, received 151,125 doses – almost 9,750 for each of the 16 German federal states.

Italian health ministry officials have played down the row and defended the EU’s jointly procured vaccination distribution plan, which administers doses on a pro-rata basis to the 27 member states based on their Eurostat population count.

Health undersecretary Sandra Zampa, called it an “absurd” controversy and insisted the EU member states use different vaccine providers with different delivery timings.