MADRID – Following Semana Santa, Spain will start to see a difference in the rate of vaccinations administered. While the current figures cannot be called hopeful, according to the Spanish government, this is about to change. Spain is heading for a true “mass vaccination” in the second quarter.
Spain can now commence mass vaccination after receiving a record number of vaccines. A peak was reached at the beginning of April when the most number people vaccinated in one day. Furthermore, this is now expected to accelerate. The large supply of corona vaccines is causing optimism with regard to the vaccination target. And according to spanish news site La Sexta the 70% target of the population before the summer is within reach.
How many vaccines will Spain receive in the second quarter?
On Monday, Spain took receipt of 1.2 million vaccines from Pfizer. While at the same time, the authorities are still administering the more than 1 million AstraZeneca vaccines that Spain previously received.
This quarter, the promised 5.5 million vaccines from Janssen should also be delivered. This will be split over a three-month period, 300,000 in April followed by 1.3 million in May and finaly, 3.9 million in June. Major steps can be taken with the latter vaccines as just one dose provides sufficient protection against the virus.
According to official figures from the Ministry of Health of Spain, there are almost 9 million Spaniards who have received the first vaccination and almost 3 million people who have been fully vaccinated.
Vaccination target
However, there are significant differences between the Spanish regions. The over-80s are one of the first target groups to receive the vaccine. Andalucia is at the forefront as a Spanish region where almost all people over 80 (96%) received their first dose. This is in considerable contrast with, for example, the Basque Country. Here only 63% of people of this age have had a first vaccination. In almost all regions in Spain, just over half of the people who have had a first injection are yet to receive the second.
The figures for the number of vaccinated people between the ages of 70 and 79, however, look very different. The Canary Islands are at the forefront of this as 11.1% of this target group has been vaccinated for the first time. The other Spanish regions barely reach a vaccination rate of about 3-4% of this group. Despite these disappointing figures, the Spanish government is convinced that this will change in the coming weeks given the expected supply of millions of vaccines and the resulted roll-out of mass vaccinations.
