Spain plans not to give AstraZeneca vaccine to those who have tested positive for COVID-19 until six months after infection

SPAIN is making changes to its vaccination strategy.

Although the measure is ‘provisional’, meaning it is subject to change, the AstraZeneca vaccine will no longer go first and foremost to the elderly and frontline healthcare workers, as Spain does not yet have data for the use of this vaccine on those aged over 55. 

Instead the priority will be ‘personal and social healthcare workers,’ such as dentists and physiotherapists, and those ‘essential to the functioning of society’ – a group that includes police and school teachers, among others.

Another alteration is that individuals aged under 56 who have suffered from COVID-19 will not receive the AstraZeneca vaccine until six months after the date of their diagnosis.

And those under 56 who have already received the first dose of said vaccine will have to wait half a year for the second.

This is because the rate of reinfection within this timeframe is ‘very low’, explained the report published on February 9.

AstraZeneca has not been popular of late. Of the 75 million doses originally due to be sent to the EU in the first quarter of 2021, the pharmaceutical company will only send 40 million.

Almost half of all EU countries have also slapped age limitations on the distribution of the jab, even though the World Health Organisation has recommended rolling it out for all ages.