ARCHIVED - Over 40 per cent of people in Spain are fully vaccinated against Covid

Over half of the target population have been fully immunized in 4 out of 17 regions

The latest Covid immunization campaign data published by Spain’s Ministry of Health on Monday report that a further 1.166.638 coronavirus vaccine doses were administered over the weekend, taking the total since the campaign began to almost 43.96 million.

As a result of the latest jabs, the proportion of the population to have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 has risen to 40.3 per cent (19,135,448 people), progressing towards the target of 70 per cent which has been set by the government to achieve “herd immunity”.

These 19 million people who have received both vaccine doses or the single-dose Janssen product are among 26.5 million, or 55.9 per cent of the population, who have been given at least one jab, and as the immunization campaign continues rapidly the vaccines are now being administered to younger and younger age groups. As many as 56.1 per cent of those aged over 40 in Spain are fully vaccinated and 88.1 per cent have received at least one dose, while 31.5 per cent of those in their 30s have been given the first dose.

In this context the efficiency of the vaccines is demonstrated by the fact that the overwhelming majority of new cases being confirmed are in teenagers and young adults.

Of course, there is still some variation among the data for the different regions of Spain, but in all of them the vaccination process is progressing rapidly. In Asturias 72.8 per cent of over-12s have received at least one dose but the equivalent percentage is just 57% in Madrid, while the proportions to have been fully vaccinated range from 41.5 per cent in the Balearics and the Canaries to 53.8 per cent in Asturias.

Asturias leads the way, but three other regions have also reached the milestone of immunizing at least half of the population aged over 12: Galicia (52.8%), Extremadura (51.3%) and Castilla y León (50.3%).