Nearly 900 people showed up for music, free espresso and cornetti, and a chance for protection against the coronavirus.

By Elisabetta Povoledo

ROME — For months, Marta Pacholczak has been fretting about getting vaccinated.

Originally from Poland, she has lived in Rome for 25 years, but for many of those, Ms. Pacholczak has been homeless. She is not registered with Italy’s national health service, and without an official residence or a social security number, she has had no access to the country’s coronavirus vaccination campaign.

But over the weekend, she was one of nearly 900 people who tried to take advantage of an overnight vaccination drive, called Open Night, organized by the health authorities in the Lazio region, which includes Rome.

“I can’t do anything without a vaccine,” said Ms. Pacholczak, 65, clutching her ticket — No. 850 — while craning her neck to hear numbers being called out on Sunday morning. “I can’t work or travel in this moment.”

The initiative, organized in a cloister of the Santo Spirito hospital, near the Vatican, was targeted at “people on the margins of society, the most fragile,” said Angelo Tanese, the director general of ASL Roma 1, the region’s largest local health unit.

To help draw in the crowds, a jazz pianist serenaded those present on Saturday night, while free espresso and cornetti — the Italian croissant — were offered on Sunday morning.

Doctors and nurses administered the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to homeless people, undocumented migrants, foreign students and foreigners who legally work in Rome but are not registered with the national health service.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which requires only one dose — unlike the two-shot regimens made by AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech — is especially useful for inoculating people who might be harder to reach or might not return for a second dose. About 80 percent of the people at the Santo Spirito clinic were undocumented migrants, Mr. Tanese said.

Santo Spirito, a 12th-century hospital and one of the oldest in Europe, has seen its fair share of plagues, epidemics and wars, Mr. Tanese said. “It’s the vocation of this hospital,” brought into the 21st century, he noted.

Gianfranco Costanzo, the health director of the National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty, estimates that there are at least 700,000 people in Italy who are not registered with the national health service, which is managed by regional governments.

“Those are serious numbers, especially in a pandemic,” he said in a telephone interview. “But it’s also a question of rights, because our health service ensures that everyone has a right to be vaccinated, regardless of your administrative status.”

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