The Dacia Arena vaccine hub was officially inaugurated on Thursday morning, with Udinese thus becoming the first club in Italy to open the doors of its stadium for the COVID-19 vaccination drive.
Organised in collaboration with Confindustria Udine and the Friuli Venezia Giulia authorities, the drive will be targeted at local businesses. The Dacia Arena hub can vaccinate at least 1,000 people per day – and around 20,000 bookings have already been made by 270 local companies, including Udinese Calcio.
With the first 100 doses already administered on Thursday, the hub will benefit from the state-of-the-art facilities at the Dacia Arena, with the Curva Nord itself used as the post-vaccine waiting area.
The initiative is a show of support from Udinese to the local community, confirming the key role of the Dacia Arena itself in the local area – not just on match day, but 365 days a year.
Present at the inauguration on Thursday were Confindustria Udine President Anna Mareschi Danieli, Friuli Venezia Giulia Councillors Riccardo Riccardi and Sergio Emidio Bini and Udinese Calcio General Manager Franco Collavino.
“This is a hugely important moment for our whole community,” said Collavino. “We were delighted to embrace the vaccination drive, along with Confindustria Udine and the regional authorities, and promote it by making the Dacia Arena the first stadium in Italy to open its internal facilities up as a vaccine hub.
“I’d like to thank President Mareschi Danieli, the Friuli Venezia Giulia regional authorities, deputy governor Riccardi and councillor Bini for this brilliant shared initiative. The Dacia Arena is the stadium of the Friulian community and we’ve always wanted it to be a stadium that is active and open to the general public 365 days a year – and we hope that is even truer once the current infrastructural works are completed.
“Through initiatives such as this one, we restate our role as privileged ambassadors of the local area and as champions of positive messaging. The entire community is now called on to get behind a vaccination drive which must proceed at speed if we are to get back to normal as quickly as possible – with fans back at the Dacia Arena too, of course.
“It’s no coincidence that the vaccines are actually administered in the iconic Curva Nord, the spiritual home of our supporters, who we miss deeply. Football is a wonderful vehicle for positive messages and we’re proud to help promote an important one now, though the Dacia Arena vaccine hub.”