Last Tuesday, the Council of Ministers approved the vaccination strategy against COVID-19 once it can begin to be administered. The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, explained how will be administered in primary care centers in three phases: a first, from January to March, in which residents and health personnel in homes for the elderly and people with disabilities will be vaccinated, and they will be followed by the rest of health personnel and large non-institutionalized dependents. “We estimate that in this first stage around 2.5 million people will be vaccinated”, Illa has pointed out.
Illa explained that “one of the objectives of this vaccination plan is to prioritize which groups have to receive these doses first.” He already announced on Tuesday that in total 18 population groups have been established without going into details and this Friday he has specified which ones will follow those who will receive the vaccine in that first phase but without specifying the order nor the moment in which they will be administered:
– Over 64 years old
– People at risk
– People who live or work in closed environments
– People belonging to vulnerable groups due to their economic situation
– Essential workers
– All teaching staff
– Children population
– Adolescent and young population
– Adult population set
– People who live in places with high incidence or in outbreak situations
– Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers
– People immune to the virus, positive for SARS-CoV-2
The minister wanted to make it clear that “as the vaccination process evolves, these groups are going to be located in stage 2 and 3”. You have underlined that “It is going to be a flexible decision that will be decided on the fly” and that what is planned is that phase 2 will take place from March to June and, in summer, the mass vaccination of the entire population will take place, as advanced this Thursday “When will there be a percentage of vaccination that at least guarantees immunity? Not before summer. That is why we have set a horizon of months. Five or six months, “he said.
Experts change their minds on the vaccine: the key to its working and long-term adverse effects
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This classification has been made taking into account the risk of serious morbidity, exposure to the virus, the socioeconomic impact and the possibility of transmission. The Government plans to have 80 million dosesand it will be voluntary and free. Illa recalled that “the seven vaccines with which the EU is negotiating and has concluded agreements are subject to receiving authorization.” He also wanted to insist that “no vaccine will be authorized that does not have safety and efficacy requirements evaluated by the European Medicines Agency.”
This Thursday, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, visited the facilities of the Rovi pharmaceutical company, prepared to manufacture the Moderna vaccine, and insisted that we are in “a very complex moment.” Both Sánchez and Illa are hopeful that vaccines are “the beginning of the end” of the crisis caused by the pandemic. In addition, the Minister of Health recalled this Thursday that the measures adopted to stop the coronavirus are working and all communities are reducing transmission, but warned that, although “the end is closer, the road will still last a few months.”
The race for the vaccine of the different pharmaceutical companies continues its course. Pfizer and Moderna lead, after announcing 95% effectiveness, while AstraZeneca’s must take a step back to draw conclusions and keep moving forward. You are going to do a new human trial to find out why there is such a difference in effectiveness depending on the dose. On Monday he explained that the administration of half a dose of his experimental vaccine had produced an effectiveness of 90% in a group of 2,700 volunteers. However, in another larger group, almost 9,000 participants, a normal dose was administered initially and effectiveness dropped to 62%.
Good evolution
According to the data reported this Thursday, the total number of infected by COVID-19 has increased by 12,289, of which 5,073 correspond to the last 24 hours. In the last 7 days, 1,220 people have died in our country and the death toll increased by 337 people this Thursday. In total, there are already 44,374 people who have officially died from COVID-19 in Spain.
The cumulative incidence remains at 340 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and similar figures for hospital pressure are recorded in Spain, which stands at 12.84 and 28.98 for ICU beds occupied by coronavirus patients.
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