Alex Trelinski
A new round of Covid-19 booster jabs will be available to everybody in Spain from this autumn,
Health Minister, Carolina Darias, made the announcement on Thursday during a TV interview on La Sexta.
The fourth shots will feature improvements to the vaccine to take account of variants like Omricon.
Only on Wednesday, Darias repeated an declaration made last week that the new booster was only going initially to for people aged 80 years and over, as well as vulnerable groups.
Covid-19 levels are at low levels in Spain due to the big take up of the vaccination programme.
The highest number of cases are in those aged over 60 with the cumulative incidence standing at 590, compared to 3,400 last Christmas.
Darias described hospital occupancy caused by the coronavirus as ‘tremendously stable’ accounting for 5% of beds.
She added that the BA.4 and BA.5 Omricon variants had gained ground in recent weeks but ‘without it leading to greater severity in cases’ due to the vaccination campaign.
Figures show that the risk of hospitalisation in those over 60 years was cut by 63% in the first two months of 2022, and deaths were down by 57% in that same period- all down to vaccinations.
Spain has already ordered a big batch of Pfizer vaccines but its own home-produced Hipra vaccine should be approved and ready to be used in the autumn.
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