Spain switches gear as 2 million doses arrive over Easter, putting the country on track for summer vaccination target

THE target of 25 million COVID-19 vaccinations handed out before the end of June has been given a boost over the Easter break with over two million doses delivered ready to be administered.

Last Thursday, 1.05 million AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Spain after a brief break due to safety concerns, and was distributed across the country on Good Friday to continue with the country’s vaccination program.

This figure was bolstered today (April 5) with the arrival of 1.2 million Pfizer vaccines according to Carolina Darias, Minister of Health, that will be available for the over-980 age group.

The new deliveries have come as preparations are underway across the country to find larger capacity vaccination centres to enable mass vaccinations to help reach the government’s summer goal.

Among these new venues is the 20,000 capacity Wizink Centre in Madrid, which has been pencilled in to administer the vaccines to the 60-65 age group.

The 16,000 seat Illumbe bullring in San Sebastian, the City of the Arts in Valencia and numerous outdoor fairgrounds across Barcelona are also popping up to handle around 57,000 vaccines per day.

Andalucia and Murcia are expected to announce their plans later this week for extra facilities.

The vaccination program did not take a break over the Easter holidays too, with 206,438 administered between last Thursday and Friday.

This brings the total vaccinations nationwide to 8,548,598 according to Saturday’s figures, representing the use of 88.2% of the total delivered to Spain so far.

Of the 8.5 million vaccinated people, 2,841,148 have received both doses of the AstraZeneca, BioTech and Moderna vaccines.

Andalucia tops the table with most vaccinations carried out, with over 1,364,463 given so far, closely followed by Catalonia and Madrid.

“Each day that passes is a milestone compared to the previous one in the administration of vaccines.” said Darias.

“The program is also well on course to reaching our summer target of 25 million vaccinated people by the start of summer, and 33 million by the end.”