Latest: Coronavirus in Spain figures (5 Apr)
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The Spanish Health Ministry has released a list to summarise how it has divided the entire Spanish population into 15 groups in order to administer vaccinations against Coronavirus (Covid-19) during 2021. The details were announced by Health Minister Salvador Illa during a press briefing on Friday.
Spain’s overall Vaccination Strategy is to be divided into three phases, during the period January to September 2021. Other than the groups to be vaccinated during the first phase, however, and which were first announced on Tuesday, the order for vaccinating the other groups of the population has not yet been disclosed. Vaccination will also be voluntary.
The groups of people in the first phase who will receive the vaccination during January to March 2021 – and which are estimated to be 2.5 million people – are:
- Care home users
- Staff at care homes
- All other health professionals
- People with serious disabilities
Phase two of the vaccination plan is scheduled from April to June 2021, with phase three planned for July to September. The Health Ministry has not yet decided the order of the groups to be vaccinated during the second and third phases, but will include the following:
- Citizens aged over 64 (approximately nine million people)
- People with underlying conditions (eg, obesity, diabetes) and particularly vulnerable to Covid-19
- Those working or living in confined spaces or communities
- Vulnerable groups for socio-economic reasons
- Those employed in essential services
- Teachers and other education staff
- Children
- Citizens living in areas with high incidence rates
- Pregnant women or breastfeeding mothers
- Those already immune who have had Covid-19
- Teenagers, young adults and other adults not included in above categories
Salvador Illa originally announced details of the government’s ‘Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy’ earlier this week, after its approval at Monday’s cabinet meeting. It also follows on from remarks made by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last Sunday, that 13,000 locations across Spain would be used for Coronavirus vaccinations.
The Health Ministry is acquiring Covid-19 vaccines for Spain within the framework of the European Commission’s overall strategy. The official body that actually makes decisions about the purchase and distribution of vaccines in Spain is the ‘Agency for Medicines and Healthcare Products (AEMPS)’.
Advance purchase agreements for Covid-19 vaccines to be administered in Spain have already been signed with five pharmaceutical companies: AstraZeneca/Oxford, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, Pfizer/BioNTech and Curevac. Negotiations also continue with Moderna and Novavax. The strategy document states that ‘this is a broad portfolio of vaccines that will ensure that, if the authorisation is granted, Europe and Spain will gradually have the necessary doses, at the same time, and for the entire population, so as to face this unprecedented situation.’
Illa said this week that ‘100% of the population’ will have vaccination doses available to them by the end of 2021, but added that it would not be made obligatory. The strategy, he explained, has been worked on since mid-September, and is based on documents and recommendations from international organisations such as the European Commission, the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). It is also ‘a single common vaccination strategy for the entire country’. Health authorities from eight regions of Spain (Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia, the Valencia region, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and the Basque Country) have also participated in the technical group that has designed the strategy.
‘The effort that the world’s scientific community is making to achieve a safe and effective vaccine is unparalleled by any other before,’ the strategy document states. ‘Citizens should be aware that the vaccines that will eventually be used in the EU against Covid-19 will have the same levels of safety as any of those commonly used.’
You can also click here for further details (in English) of the key points of Spain’s Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy.
Click here for all previous reports on: Coronavirus in Spain
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4 comments
Will Spain be asking for volunteers to help administer the vaccines. As i am a 57 year old retired nurse practitioner who would be willing to volunteer
Will Spain be vaccinating her legal residents but non-EU citizens , paying social security and registered in national health system? There are also those who are legal residents but on private health insurance?
Since January the UK have at least Vaccinated over 2.5 Million, I see that Spain wants their Phase 1 ( for the period Jan to March ) of 2.5 Million to be completed in THIS TIME FRAME. How is the uk able to complete the same number of Vacinatios in 3 weeks. Is Spain on a go slow.
FOREIGNERS, PRIVATE MEDICAL CARE, AND COVID VACCINATIONS
Although, on the Spanish government site, it is clearly stated that ALL resident foreigners will be given the vaccination, yet it is not as clear as they make it out to be.
Today, I went to the local health centre to register for vaccination, when it becomes available.
I am a foreigner, well into my eighties, resident in Spain since thirty years. I presented my social security card, my residence permit, as well as my Spanish driving licence. The clerk slotted in my SS card into the computer and stared at the screen for a while. Then I was told that there is no record of my having used the system.
This is correct because, throughout all these years, whenever I needed hospitalisation or to consult a doctor, my private insurance covered the payments, as I did not wish to burden the social system.
Next, I was told that I cannot be entered on the waiting list. After much insistence on my part, the clerk agreed to confer with the supervisor. Fifteen minutes later, the clerk emerged saying that the matter has to be looked into. Whatever I said, the reply was always “Hay que solucionar esto”.
I left without an appointment.