ARCHIVED - Over half the population of Spain are fully vaccinated against Covid
Spain becomes only the third EU nation to reach the 50 per cent milestone
The latest Covid immunization campaign data published by Spain’s Ministry of Health on Monday report that marginally under a million coronavirus vaccine doses were administered over the weekend (and close to 3 million in the last week), taking the total since the campaign began to 51,229,989.
As a result of the latest jabs, the proportion of the population to have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 has risen to 50.7 per cent (24,041,017 people) and has passed the milestone of 50 per cent. According to Silvia Calzón, the Secretary of State for Public Health, Spain thus becomes only the third EU country to have immunized at least half of its population, but after making such good progress in the last seven months she also emphasizes that there must be no let-up.
This is underlined by the fact that with Covid incidence rates increasing sharply all over the country the proportion of cases requiring hospital treatment or leading to death is far lower than in previous waves of infection, as those most at risk of infection are now young adults and minors.
The 24 million people who have received both vaccine doses or the single-dose Janssen product are among almost 29.5 million, or 62.1 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. 81.5 per cent of those aged over 40 in Spain are fully vaccinated, while 53.2 per cent of those in their 30s have been given the first dose.
Within the regional data the case of Asturias stands out. In this part of northern Spain as many as 68.3 per cent of the target population are already fully vaccinated, including 76.1 per cent of those aged between 40 and 49 (as opposed to a national average of 62.7 per cent in this age group). Similarly, the regional health service has fully immunized 31.2 per cent of those in their 30s (as opposed to 21 per cent nationwide), while the highest proportion among 20-somethings is reported in Aragón at 18.5 per cent.