Date Published: 06/02/2021
ARCHIVED - First AstraZeneca vaccines arrive in Spain but will only be used on those aged 18-55
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Just under 200,000 doses arrived in this first consignment
On Friday evening the Spanish Interterritorial Health System decided that the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be given to those aged 80 or over, and will only be administered to those aged between 18 and 55. The policy is in line with those adopted in numerous other EU states. Germany and France have both opted to only administer the vaccine to those under the age of 65 on the grounds that there is insufficient data to guarantee the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the elderly, and in fact in Switzerland it has been decided not to allow its use at all in any age group.
The first 196,800 AstraZeneca doses arrived in Spain on Saturday and will be distributed to the 17 autonomous regions on Monday.
In total, 1,810,575 doses of the vaccine are scheduled for delivery to Spain during February.
The government plans to administer the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to active health and social health professionals who are not first-line workres and who are not in groups 2 and 3 of the vaccination strategy. These are people prioritized by their risk of exposure to the virus (hospital and care workers primary care; dental, dental hygiene and other health personnel who attend patients without a mask and for a period exceeding 15 minutes). Along with the other two vaccines that are being administered in Spain, AstraZeneca's comprises two doses, which will be injected with an interval of 10 to 12 weeks.
As of Friday Spain had administered just 1,988,160 doses of covid vaccines, 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.