Fiona Govan
SPAIN has announced it will immediately roll out plans to administer a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine to those considered the most vulnerable.
Elderly people in care homes as well as those with compromised immune systems such as cancer and transplant patients, will be eligible for booster dose, the Health Ministry announced on Thursday.
Health chiefs had been weighing up whether to introduce a booster programme and decided not to delay for fear of overlapping with the start of the flu season.
Other countries, including the United Kingdom, the USA and France, will also offer boosters to the elderly and people with weak immune systems, although as yet there is no global scientific consensus as to whether they are necessary.
Spain’s elderly care homes were terribly bad hit at the start of the pandemic with close to 30,000 residents dying from Covid by the end of February this year.
The infection rate in Spain on Thursday dropped below threshold of an average of 100 cases per 100,000 people over 14 days for the first time since the start of the fifth wave on June 25.
It now stands at a national average of 96 cases per 100,000 people.
Meanwhile over three-quarters of Spain’s entire population – more than 37 million people – has now been fully vaccinated.
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