Kirsty Mckenzie
A TOP health expert in Spain has urged young people to get their double-dose of vaccines as data shows that people in their teens, 20s and 30s are being hospitalised by COVID- 19 at a rapid rate.
The spokesman for the Spanish Society of Public Health (Sespas) said there was encouraging data to show that double dose vaccination continues to provide a high level of protection against infection.
Manuel Franco said that while the vaccination rollout in Spain has been ‘something we have done very well’, remarking on the government’s ‘speed and orderliness’ he warned that hospitalisation numbers were still too high.
Franco added ‘we are in a fifth wave that offers a complexity that we did not know before.’
Spain’s Health Ministry reported 61,628 new cases of coronavirus on Monday and added 23 COVID-19 victims to the overall death toll.
The number of COVID-19 patients now stands at 6,482 – a rise of 1,426 since Friday. Of these, 1,039 are in intensive care units (ICUs), a figure that has gone up by 167 since Friday. On each one of the last seven days, the number of COVID-19 patients has risen an average of 370, and ICU patients by 46.
Franco said that the data suggested that people are being discharged more quickly and spending, on average, less time in hospital than patients in earlier phases of the pandemic.
As well as vaccinating the adult population the government is making preparations for the vaccination of those aged between 12 and 17 before the end of the summer.
Franco urged people to make sure they get vaccinated when invited to do so.
He added: “Now the focus is to protect the health of our young people and this is an important epidemiological and sanitary change.”
Spain has reached the landmark of fully vaccinating over 50% of its population and one dose for 63% of its population. It is on tract to meet the target of having 70% of the population fully inoculated by the end of August.
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