ARCHIVED - 14 million Spaniards have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine
One in 7.5 of the population is now fully vaccinated against coronavirus
The Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Spain continues to make rapid progress after the slow start early in the year, and according to the government update issued on Tuesday afternoon over 20 million vaccine doses have now been administered.
The number of people to have received both jabs (or the single-dose Janssen product) now stands at 6,327,447, equivalent to 13.3 per cent of the population, while the proportion of inhabitants to have received at least their first dose has climbed to 29.6 per cent (just over 14 million) as the campaign spreads to more and more people in their 50s and 60s. This has led Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to forecast that within 100 days Spain will have achieved something resembling herd immunity, with 70 per cent of the population immunized against coronavirus.
Despite the significant acceleration in the immunization campaign of late there are still noticeable discrepancies in the rate of inoculation from region to region. Taking into account only the population aged over 16 (who are currently scheduled to be vaccinated) the proportion to have received at least one dose ranges from 43.6 per cent in Asturias to just 30.2 per cent in Murcia, and similar discrepancies can be observed in the different age groups.
For example, while in Galicia 89.3 per cent of people in their sixties have received their first jab, in Murcia the equivalent proportion is 67.6 per cent and in the Comunidad Valenciana only 67.2 per cent. However, in the 50-59 age group Murcia is progressing significantly faster than other regions, with a 19.4 per cent vaccination rate as opposed to 16.7 per cent nationwide.
Given the rate at which the rollout is now taking place these regional differences will no doubt be ironed out over the next few weeks, and the next milestone identified by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is to raise the number of people who are fully immunized to 10 million by the first week of June.