Oxford vaccine rollout starts
The AstraZeneca jab will only be given to people aged 55 and under
THE VALENCIA region started administering doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to second line healthcare workers this week.
The health department distributed 9,690 doses between Tuesday and Wednesday, of which 4,320 were to be given to personnel in private centres and 5,370 to public centres.
The national government started delivering the first shipment of 196,800 doses around the country on Monday, following their arrival in Spain on Saturday.
During February Spain is expected to receive a total of 1,810,575 doses, said health minister Carolina Darias on Friday.
Recipients would be decided according to the state vaccination strategy, informed the ministry for health.
Unlike the new mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, the national public health committee has only approved the AstraZeneca vaccine for use in people aged between 18 and 55.
The committee met three times last week and deliberated whether to set the age ceiling at 65 or 55, as several other European countries had already decided on one or the other, or none at all.
Although the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the vaccine for any age, the AstraZeneca trials started with people aged 18-55, only adding others from 55-69 later.
For this reason it was felt that its effectiveness had not been sufficiently proven in the older age group, which did not mean that it was not safe, only that more trials were needed to prove that it works on them.
National coronavirus spokesman Fernando Simón said that not using the AstraZeneca vaccine for older people would not affect the vaccination schedule ‘much’, as long as the pharmaceutical companies deliver as many doses as they have promised.
This vaccine will first be given to active health and social-health workers who were not already included in groups two and three. The first group consists of front line professionals while those in the second need to be prioritised due to their risk of exposure to the virus (workers in hospitals, primary attention, dentistry and health workers who attend to patients without a face mask for longer than 15 minutes).
It also expanded group three by adding a subgroup including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, legal medicine, home-help services, children’s homes and day centres, and prison workers ‘based on the risk of exposure at their work’.
The original calendar had been to prioritise over 70s but the public health committee decided on Tuesday that those to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine next would be group six, which includes law enforcement personnel, fire fighters, the armed forces and teachers.
The mRNA vaccines are currently only being administered to people aged over 80.
In total, the government hopes to distribute a total of four million doses of the three vaccines during February.
It comes at a moment when the incidence rate of the third wave of the pandemic continues to drop, but also during concern over new variants of the virus. The health ministry has concluded the British variant could be more serious and lethal, but on Friday, the head researcher for the Oxford/AstraZeneca trials, Andrew Pollard revealed that their vaccine is effective against it.
The AstraZeneca vaccine has been shown to be less effective against the South African variant, of which more than 100 cases had been detected in Spain by Sunday.
The South African government decided to suspend use of this vaccine there after small studies indicated its efficacy against the variant could be as low as 10%.
A spokesman for the pharmaceutical company noted that the trial only included light and moderate cases, and most of the 2,000 participants were young, healthy adults. He said they were still unable to tell if it would prevent serious cases and hospitalisations caused by the mutation, but stated it creates similar neutralising antibodies to the other vaccines.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is stored in vials of 10 doses which, unlike the other types, do not need to be reconstituted before use.
The vials can be stored for up to six months at between 2ºC and 8ºC, and once opened last for six hours at room temperature or 48 hours if refrigerated.
Two doses are required and the second must be administered between 10 and 12 weeks after the first.
ON Monday Russia extradited a Lithuanian national to Spain who is wanted in connection with a murder that took place in El Campello in 2017.
Denas Vaitkevicius was put on a plane at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport accompanied by Russian prison serfice vice representatives and Interpol officers, explained Irina Volk, spokesperson for Russia’s ministry of interior affairs. Vaitkevicius was arrested in March 2020 at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport when he tried to enter Russia on a passport belonging to someone else.
Moscow’s prosecutor’s ofcomplied with the extradition request submitted by the Spanish authorities, who have two open criminal cases against him for murder and attempted storage of drugs (cannabis), and issued a warrant for his arrest in October 2017.
According to the Spanish investigation, Vaitkevicius killed a compatriot with a hammer and a kitchen knife in an apartment in El Campello.
One of those allegedly involved in the killing was arrested by Spanish police, but Vaitkevicius, who was armed, managed to escape and was not located again until his Moscow arrest.
PLANS to build ‘skyscrapers’ in Torrevieja – which have been on the table for more than a decade – have taken a step forward.
The town hall has published detailed documents relating to one of the projects close to El Acequión beach, where two tower blocks with 26 floors have been earmarked.
And regional Spanish newspaper Diario Información revealed that the council planning department has published reports in favour of two further projects close to the coast, at Playa Los Náufragos and Cala del Palangre.
These sites would have 13 high-rise buildings between them, ranging between 17 and 29 storeys high.
Baraka’s scheme
The town hall has published plans on the council website of the scheme presented by the property company Baraka.
A 100-page document gives further details on the project which has been in the offing since the first decade of this century and has not yet got off the ground.
Their two tower blocks would have 26 floors and measure some 82 metres in height.
The plans show that they would be built off Avenida Dr. Gregorio Marañón – and directly behind Doña Sinforosa park, which gives onto El Acequión beach near its access from the Marina Internacional.
Town planning officers give the thumbs up to the scheme in the report, stating that it complies with the modifications made to the Town Plan (PGOU) by a previous Partido Popular council which allow for buildings with up to 30 floors to be constructed in Torrevieja.
They state that the scheme is ‘viable and economically sustainable’ and claim ‘in essence’ the national coast department (Costas) does not any objections.
The extensive report establishes a number of norms for the construction of the tower blocks.
One of these is that neither of the buildings should throw a shadow over the beach between 10.00 and 19.00 on any day of the year.
It also notes that modification 52 made to the PGOU establishes that the construction of such high-rise buildings should ‘boost the economy of the town by promoting the installation of hotels’.
In line with this stipulation ‘at least 50%’ of the two tower blocks will have to be reserved for hotel use.
On the company’s website they state that that one of the buildings would be a hotel and the other a private building.
They note that there would be 130 luxury private apartments and 250 apartments for tourists.
The plans also show a complete make-over for Doña Sinforosa park, which would be turned into an open public space in front of the beach.
Other projects
According to Diario Información, a further nine tower blocks have been earmarked for land close to Playa Los Náufragos and five for Cala del Palangre to the north of the town centre.
They note that council planning officers claim that the projects would ‘not have a significant effect on the environment’.
Their decision paves the way for the town hall to give the green light for building licences for the schemes.
However, according to the newspaper, the promoters have been asked to provide more details on how they would prevent their buildings casting a shadow over the nearby beaches between the times of 10.00 and 19.00.
‘No way!’
People commentating on the Costa Blanca News Facebook page were nearly unanimous in their condemnation of the plans.
Neil Curran stated: “Oh no. Part of the attraction of Torrevieja is that it doesn’t look like Benidorm.”
Elisabeth Lopes said it was a ‘great way to make the city uglier’.
Karl Dooner noted: “You would think that by now Spanish councils and local governments would have realised that anything resembling high rise near a beach just brings the area down visually.”
However, Geoff Edwards supported the move and stated: “More jobs, more people spending money, what’s not to like.”