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ARCHIVED - Spain fails to meet first milestone of child vaccines
Just over half of children between 5 and 11 have received their first Covid jab in Spain
After getting off to a very promising start on December 15, the administration of vaccines to children under the age of 11 in Spain has well and truly stalled, to the extent that the government has failed to meet its first target of inoculating 70% of youngsters by February 7. In fact, only 55.6% of over 5s have received it, making it extremely difficult to meet the next milestone of having almost three-quarters of this age group double jabbed by April 18.
This isn’t the first time President Sanchez has prematurely jumped the gun; he set an immunisation target for the adult population when the vaccination campaign first began with the goal of reaching the elusive herd immunity but this date also came and went without the results he was hoping for.
So far, Spain has received 4.4 million doses of the Pfizer paediatric vaccine, but more than 60% of these remain unused. The setback comes just when the children who received their first jab early on become eligible for the second this Wednesday February 9.
The Ministry of Health blames the explosion of Omicron cases in recent weeks for the slow uptake, as children who have been infected have to wait longer to receive their jab, just like adults.
“There is a significant number in this age group who have been infected and we have to wait for them to overcome the infection,” the Minister of Health explained this week.
However, Covid experts have suggested some other reasons for the slowdown, not least of which is the fact that the vaccine “has worked very well” on children aged between 8 and 11 but less so on younger kids.
Added to this is the confusion that has reigned on whether youngsters who have overcome the virus need one or two doses, a decision which communities were forced to make for themselves before the Ministry eventually settled on a single jab eight weeks after diagnosis.
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