A ray of hope in Spain as the first Covid vaccines are administered

Case numbers continue to rise as the immunization campaign begins

The much-anticipated coronavirus immunization campaign began in Spain on Sunday 27th December, when the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered to residents and staff at homes for the elderly in various locations across the country.

The first beneficiary of the campaign was a 96-year-old woman named Araceli Hidalgo, who lives in the Los Olmos residence in Guadalajara, 60 kilometres north-east of Madrid. She received her first dose at 9.00 and the second will follow in three weeks’ time as the government implements its plan to prioritize those in such homes over and above other groups.

Shortly after Sra Hidalgo was given her jab, the first doses of the vaccine were administered in the Region of Murcia to 83-year-old Josefa Martínez and 85-year-old Manuel Madrid at the Mensajeros de la Paz home for the elderly in San Pedro del Pinatar, and with similar scenes receiving widespread press coverage all over Spain Salvador Illa, the Minister for Health, confidently announced that the day marked “the beginning of the end of the fight against the pandemic”.

The doses in San Pedro del Pinatar were among a batch of 335 which had left Guadalajara at 5.00 on Sunday morning and had been sent to the shore of the Mar Menor and to another home in Churra, in the northern outskirts of the city of Murcia. In future it is anticipated that the Region of Murcia will be receiving 12,775 doses of the vaccine every week.

The rollout of the vaccine is not without its problems, though, and the next delivery to Spain from the Pfizer plant in Belgium has been delayed 24 hours due to a logistical problem related to loading and distribution. Fortunately, the problem is already reported to have been solved and the impact on the vaccination campaign is described as minimal.

Latest case numbers show steady increase

Meanwhile, the latest data underline the importance of beginning the inoculation process as soon as possible, with Covid case numbers rising in many parts of Spain. The difficulties of compiling complete information over the Christmas weekend have led to there being no new official updates from the Ministry of Health since Christmas Eve, when it was reported that the nationwide 14-day accumulated incidence rate had risen to 262 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, but the figures published by some regional health services and governments since then suggest that the upward trend noted since earlier in the month is continuing.

The latest figures show that the rates have more than doubled in Madrid, Catalunya and the Balearics over the last fortnight (to 396, 327 and 500 respectively), and in Catalunya the regional government increasingly concerned not only about the increases in cases and fatalities but also about the strain being placed on hospitals and the health service. The local government areas of La Cerdanya and El Ripollès were isolated last Wednesday night and a proposal is being considered to close down all bars and restaurants and to bring forward the start of the night-time curfew on New Year’s Eve.

In the Region of Murcia, the health service bulletin published on Sunday reported a further 154 cases and four more fatalities related to Covid-19, while the numbers of active cases and patients receiving hospital care remained almost stable at 3,417 and 228 respectively.

The “British variant” reaches Spain

At the same time, four cases involving the new, even more contagious variant of Covid-19 which has sent case numbers soaring in the UK have been confirmed in the region of Madrid and another three suspected cases are being analysed: three of the confirmed cases are relatives of a man who recently travelled to the Spanish capital from Britain, raising concerns again over the nature of checks at airports.

On Monday morning the authorities in Andalucía confirmed another five cases of the “British variant”, which has also been found in patients in Denmark (33), Switzerland (3), Sweden (1), the Netherlands, Italy (11) and France (1) over the last 48 hours.