ARCHIVED - Covid vaccination campaign in Murcia now extended to include 63-year-olds
The regional health authority has reiterated that the public should check their details are correctly registered with their health centre and wait to be called
The coronavirus vaccination campaign continues to gather momentum throughout Spain after the frustrations of the first three months of the year, and on Monday it was announced that in the Region of Murcia the inoculation of those born in 1956 and 1957 is to begin this week.
The vaccine to be administered to the 49,000 residents of Murcia aged between 63 and 65 is the AstraZeneca product, which was first extended to members of the population as a whole (rather than specific professions) late last week. However, the first vaccination sessions, aimed at 64- and 65-year-olds, were only a partial success due to what Juan José Pedreño, the regional minister for Health, describes as “operational problems”.
Sr Pedreño was referring to the apparently low take-up rates of the vaccine among those given appointments at the large venues brought into service for the vaccination campaign last week, particularly at the Cabezo Beaza centre in Cartagena, where only around half of the patients expected arrived to receive their jabs. According to the minister this was not due to any particular reluctance to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, but due to a series of factors including a large number of people who treated the SMS phone messages with scepticism as there have been fake messages sent out calling thousands of people to non-existent appointments. This occurred in Sevilla, in neighbouring Andalucía, at the end of Easter week when thousands of people were hoaxed by social media users (who will now face criminal charges).
In addition, it is reported that the contact details for numerous patients were found to be insufficient or erroneous, resulting in many messages not being received, and Sr Pedreño advises all members of the public to ensure that the details registered at their local health centres are in fact correct.
As it became obvious that thousands of patients were not going to arrive as expected for their vaccines, health service employees put out a message on social media calling for all those who had been sent an appointment to come along for their vaccines, even attaching a promotional message urging residents to accept their vaccines, but the result was the unexpected arrival of hundreds of people keen to be vaccinated who did not have appointments.
A large queue formed outside the pavilion and finally all of those who had gone along to the sports centre were vaccinated, regardless of whether they had an appointment or not, in order to not waste the vaccines, but the health service has reiterated yet again, that residents should do nothing more at the moment than ensure that their contact details are up to date in their local health centre and wait to be sent a notification that they have been called for their vaccination.
The Health Minister is also keen to stress that those who for one reason or another missed their initial appointments will not be relegated to the back of the queue, and will be contacted again. In Cartagena, this will affect a large number of people: it is reported that on Wednesday 31st March only 2,173 of the 4,300 people summoned to Cabeza Beaza kept their appointments.
In general, it appears that there will be surge in immunization rates in the Region of Murcia during April, with over 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine expected to be delivered and the introduction of the Janssen product as well as the AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines. As the month began it was reported that 86 per cent of the over-80s in the Region had received at least one dose and 53 per cent the second dose, and when this sector of the population has been fully immunized the 70-to-79 age group will become the main target at which the Pfizer product is directed.
At present the number of people in Murcia to have received the first jab stands at 168,541, or 13.8 per cent of the population, while 90,548 (7.3 per cent) have received both doses.