Date Published: 12/04/2021
ARCHIVED - Janssen vaccines will be given to 70 to 79 year olds when they arrive this week
ARCHIVED ARTICLE The Spanish government is considering various possibilities regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine and will not make an announcement until it finds the ‘best possible decision’, the Health Minister has said.
Spain’s first deliveries of the single-dose vaccine against coronavirus by Janssen, which are due to arrive this week, will be used to speed up the process to inoculate those aged between 70 and 79, Health Minister Carolina Darias said on Monday (12 April).
It is hoped that this additional stock of vaccines will rapidly reduce the risk for those in their seventies and that the use of the additional Janssen vaccines can speed up the process of protecting those most at risk. Because the Janssen vaccine gives protection with just one dose, this will offer the greatest protection most quickly to this vulnerable age group.
The minister was in Gran Canaria supervising the delivery of the 43,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine allocated to the Canary Islands for the week. She reported that Spain had received a million doses from Pfizer this week, most of which will be used to give second doses to patients aged over 80, and that 90 per cent of the public in this age bracket have now had at least one dose.
While Spain received about 10 million doses of coronavirus vaccines during the first quarter of the year, the pace has picked up and some 38 million should arrive during the second quarter, the lion’s share of which will be by Pfizer, Sra. Darias confirmed.
The Health Minister also explained that the Spanish government is carefully considering its options regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine and what to do about second doses for patients aged under 60 who had already received their first vaccine. One possible option would be to not administer second doses, as the first reportedly provide 70 per cent protection. Another option, which other countries such as Germany and France have chosen, would be to administer a second dose of another RNA-type vaccine.
The health authorities in Madrid asked for the under-60s to be allowed to receive vaccines from AstraZeneca voluntarily following the government's decision to suspend its administration to the age group in light of reports of possible links to blood clots. The matter, the Health Minister said, will have to be discussed at the next meeting of the Interterritorial Health Board.