VALENCIA REGION VACCINE RAMP UP
It’s the ‘largest vaccination campaign in the history of the country’
THE HEALTH authorities were set to administer 224,000 antiCovid jabs in the Valencia region this week.
Valencia president Ximo Puig said this was their best week yet – with one twentieth of the five-million population of the region receiving an inoculation. He said this would mean that 15% of residents would have received at least one vaccination by end of play today (Friday). This week the health authorities started to vaccinate people aged 65 and under with the AstraZeneca vaccine and residents aged 78 and 79 with the Pfizer vaccine.
First doses for the over 80s were due to be completed by the weekend, which would be ‘a very important step to provide more protection for vulnerable people’, noted Sr Puig.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday that they expect to have 70% of the population of Spain inoculated against Covid-19 by the end of August in the ‘largest vaccination campaign in the history of the country’. It is not yet known how the decision to halt jabs with the AstraZeneca vaccine for anyone under the age of 60 in Spain will affect the national campaign.
PRIME Minister Pedro Sánchez set out his vaccination vision for the country on Tuesday, stating that this will be done ‘en masse’ and in as short a time as possible to get Spain back on track.
“The moment has arrived to vaccinate without rest,” he said.
Sr Sánchez noted that the speed of inoculations will accelerate in April and from then on ‘each month will be better than the previous one’.
And he said they are aiming to have 15 million people completely vaccinated in the week starting on June 14, rising to 25 million five weeks later. He stated that Spain will receive 87 million doses between April and September of four different vaccines, which are Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson.
He added that 38 million doses will come between April and June, which will be 3.5 times more than during the first quarter of the year.
The PM stated that after completing the over 80s, the age group of 70 to 79 are being inoculated with vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen – along with at risk patients.
He added that the health ministry has launched a national vaccination register (registro nacional de vacunación) ‘which will form the basis for the Digital Green Certificate’ to ease travel within the European Union.
Sr Sánchez noted that they expect this free document to be ready for use in June, which will allow a progressive return to normal travel in the EU.
Valencia region
The regional health department reported on Wednesday that they had administered 933,355 doses of vaccines against Covid-19 by the end of play on April 7 – with 331,258 of them in Alicante province.
A total of 267,393 people have received both jabs.
Readers reported to Costa Blanca News that they had been called for their jabs this week in the age groups 63 to 65 – and also in their late 70s.
Regional president Ximo Puig noted that both age groups will receive text messages to their phones asking them to go to the stated vaccination points.
He said at the beginning of the week that 86% of education community staff had received their first dose, with the same figure for the security forces and Protección Civil volunteers.
Janssen
Sr Puig noted that the Valencia region will receive two millions doses of the single jab Janssen vaccine between April and September.
“This will allow us to immunise two million of our residents and allow us to make big advances,” he said.
He stated that he held a ‘very positive’ meeting with representatives of the pharmaceutical company on Tuesday. The ‘logistics’ for Janssen make it easy to transport as it does not have to be kept at very low temperatures, he added.
PM Sánchez noted that Spain will receive 5,700,000 vaccines from Janssen ‘before June’. He stated that full protection from this vaccine kicks in 14 days after the jab is administered. Sr Sánchez also noted that the German vaccine CureVac is pending approval in the EU, which would give an additional boost to the campaign in Spain.