13 Million Spanish Citizens Now Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Health News
Published: 16 June 2021 14:46 CET
Recently published figures from Spain’s Ministry of Health have shown that more than 13 million of the country’s citizens have now been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
As the vaccine drive continues to gather pace, as of Tuesday evening, more than 37 million vaccine doses have so far been delivered to Spain with more than 33.6 million administered.
More than 21 million people have now received at least one dose, accounting for approximately 46 per cent of the country’s population.
Spain is currently using four different vaccines, all of which have been approved by the EU and EMA (European Medicines Agency) which are the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca jabs which require two doses and the single-dose Janssen vaccine.
Vaccines Being Distributed
On Monday, the Health Ministry reported that 1.4 million of the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine had been distributed to autonomous regions with another 1.1 million distributed on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Ministry announced that another 400,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine had arrived and were being delivered to distribution centres around the country.
Another 300,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected by the end of the week with another 130,000 Janssen vaccines expected on Thursday.
New Vaccination Groups Announced
It comes as the Spanish Public Health Commission approved the vaccination of three new groups covering those between 12 and 39 years of age.
The three new groups will be 11 made up of those between 30 and 39 years, group 12 for those between 20 and 29 and group 13 for those between 12 and 19 years.
Most regions are currently vaccinating those in their 40s, however, some regions where speedy progress has been made are now vaccinating those in their 30s.
However, it has been agreed by regional health authorities that it is still of major importance that older patients, especially those in their 40s and 50s who are still yet to be vaccinated, are contacted as a matter of priority.
Government Targets
The government’s aim is to have 15 million citizens fully vaccinated by the end of the week.
Previous targets of fully vaccinating 10 million people by the first week of June and five million by the first week of May were both successfully met.
In an effort to maintain the vaccination rollouts progress, the Ministry of Health is considering allowing citizens who request it, to get vaccinated outside of the region that they live in.
With many people travelling over the summer period, the government is keen to prevent possible setbacks due to people missing their summer vaccination appointments.
Fernando Simón, Director of the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies of the Ministry of Health said, “It is not protocol, it is establishing rules on what has to happen so that it [the vaccination] is registered. Fundamentally it is a relatively simple process: a person takes out a temporary health card and this is easily recorded.”
Source
https://english.elpais.com/society/2021-06-15/covid-19-vaccination-drive-in-spain-45-have-had-at-least-one-dose.html
https://spanishnewstoday.com/more_than_13_million_people_fully_immunized_against_covid_across_spain_as_35_million_vaccines_are_delivered_1610928-a.html
Image Credit: La Moncloa Pool
