ARCHIVED - 30 per cent of the population of Spain have received at least one Covid vaccine dose
6.5 million people in Spain are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus
The Covid-19 vaccination campaign in Spain continues to make rapid progress and the latest Ministry of Health update reports that a further 461,000 doses were administered on Tuesday, taking the total since late last year to over 20.6 million.
The number of people to have received both jabs (or the single-dose Janssen product) now stands at 6,502,978, equivalent to 13.7 per cent of the population, while the proportion of inhabitants to have received at least their first dose has climbed to 30.2 per cent (just over 14.3 million) as the campaign spreads to more and more people in their 50s and 60s. It now seems eminently reasonable to expect that, as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has forecast, by the end of August Spain may have achieved something resembling herd immunity, with 70 per cent of the population immunized against coronavirus.
However, 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 44.2 per cent in Asturias to just 30.5 per cent in Murcia, and similar discrepancies can be observed in the different age groups.
For example, while in Spain as a whole 42.2 per cent of those aged 60 or over have received both doses of the vaccines (or the single-dose Janssen drug), among the regions the equivalent proportions range from 48.1 per cent in Extremadura to 36.7 per cent in Murcia. On the other hand, in the 50-59 age group Murcia is progressing faster than many other regions, with a 20 per cent vaccination rate (for at least one dose) as opposed to 18.8 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 hope remains that the number of people who are fully immunized will rise to 10 million by the first week of June.