Simon Hunter
SPAIN’S health minister Carolina Darias today announced that 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines would be arriving in Spain over September, adding that these shots have been adapted to variations of the coronavirus such as Omicron.
The vaccination drive using this new delivery of vaccines will begin in the second half of the month, although the exact date is yet to be confirmed.
As was the case during previous coronavirus vaccination campaigns, the over-80s and residents of care homes will be the first to be offered the jabs.
According to Darias, who was speaking at a press conference on Monday, the vaccines will be supplied by Pfizer and Moderna. She added that the Hipra vaccine, which has been created in Spain, should also be added to the vaccination schedule as soon as it has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The minister said that the government was very “hopeful” of this outcome.
According to the latest coronavirus data in Spain, the incidence of the virus is 151 cases per 100,000 inhabitants with hospitalisation levels the lowest they have been since the pandemic first hit in early 2020. This, the minister added, meant that there was a “reasonably optimal” situation ahead of autumn and winter, when infection rates could rise as people spend more time indoors.
Meanwhile, the new school term will be getting underway from this week onward in parts of Spain, albeit with a difference: there will no longer be any coronavirus restrictions in education centres. The last measure, a limit on capacity in school canteens, has now been lifted.
Masks are still obligatory in some settings in Spain, such as on public transport, in taxis, pharmacies and healthcare centres.
According to the latest Health Ministry report on the pandemic, there have been more than 13.3 million Covid-19 infections detected in Spain since the pandemic began, and 112,804 confirmed deaths.
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