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Date Published: 20/07/2021
ARCHIVED - Spain pauses delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine
With close to four million people already fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab, Spain now has enough doses in refrigeration to complete the schedule
The Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it now has enough refrigerated doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to provide the second jab to the 1.2 million people in their 60s who still haven’t been fully inoculated. As this vaccine is only being administered to those over 60 in Spain, the Ministry has paused shipments of the jab for 15 days and will not distribute it further to the autonomous communities.
Spain has purchased some 31 million doses of the vaccine and has agreed to donate the excess – more than 20 million jabs – to third world countries through the Covax scheme. Some 64 high-income countries have joined the Covax scheme to date, which aims to deliver approved vaccines to low- and middle-income nations.
Experts decided not to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine to younger populations following a series of reports of blood clots in middle-aged people, particularly women.
In a bit to stamp out the firth wave of the coronavirus pandemic and slow the spread of infections, the government decided at the beginning of the month to reduce the waiting period between the first and second doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from 12 weeks to 8. As a consequence, the Ministry of Health reports that 78 per cent of people in their 60s are now fully vaccinated, leaving 1.4 million doses refrigerated throughout the autonomous communities to fully inoculate the remaining over-60s.
To date, Spain has administered two doses of this jab to just under 4 million people, with the goal of fully vaccinating 5.1 million with the surplus, consisting of the older age group and essential workers such as teachers and police officers.
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