ARCHIVED - Murcia region has administered just 72,000 vaccines so far due to lack of supply

The whole of Spain has administered less than 2 million vaccines since the end of December

The excruciatingly slow vaccine roll-out in Spain continues to be hampered by lack of vaccines, leaving the country vulnerable to the potential effects of the more virulent variants, such as the British variant (Kent variant) which was acknowledged by the health ministry to be potentially more deadly as well as more contagious on Friday and is expected to be the dominant variant in Spain by the end of March.

Spain is part of the EU bloc buying programme and although 6.8 million Covid vaccination doses have been promised for Spain in February and March the roll-out is sluggish to say the least: After threatening to grind to a halt due to lack of supplies over the last fortnight the coronavirus immunization campaign seems set to gather momentum again in Spain during February, with the Minister for Health having confirmed that over 4 million doses are due to be delivered this month.

With a further 2.8 million doses said to be guaranteed in March this will make it possible to immunize some 3.3 million people (with two doses each), equivalent to around 7 per cent of the country’s population. This is still a long way short of the objective of 70 per cent, but outwardly at least the government still maintains that that target can be met by the summer.The doses on their way to Spain will be supplied by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, with Pfizer alone promising 1,779,570 in February and another 2,705,040 in March. Moderna are expected to deliver 412,000 in February and after the resolution of differences with the EU AstraZeneca, are now expected to provide a further 1,810,575 before the end of March.

As of Friday Spain had administered just 1,988,160 doses of the vaccine, and 682,909 patients had received two doses, meaning just 1.3 million people have been given their first dose in the whole of Spain.

In the Murcia region, just 76,265 doses have been supplied since the vaccination campaign began on December 26th, of which 72,359 have been administered to date.

20,388 people have received two doses and the total number of people who have received one or two doses in the region is only 51,971, from a population of 1.5 million residents.

The slow roll-out means that unless further supplies arrive soon, the regional and national governments will struggle to meet their own vaccination targets, so over 65's anxiously awaiting a call from their local health centre are unlikely to be contacted much before the end of March given the current speed of progress unless they suffer from high-risk health conditions, in which case they can expect an appointment during the latter part of February once all essential health workers have been vaccinated.