COVID-19 vaccines to arrive in Spain in early January

Spain's first consignment of vaccines against Covid-19 should begin to arrive in the country within the next three weeks. Authorisation from both the European and Spanish drug agencies is expected to be granted on December 29th, with vaccines beginning to arrive on January 4th or 5th. Vaccination itself will not start until a few days later, once vaccines have been distributed to each of the autonomous communities.

The first vaccine expected to be available in Spain is the Pfizer one, which is the one that requires storage at around 80 degrees below zero.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will meet to analyse the results of the Moderna vaccine on January 12th. If it is deemed acceptable, it could be authorised for use "in a matter of weeks or even hours" according to health minister Salvador Illa.

As established in the government's Vaccination Strategy, the first doses will be administered to the four priority groups identified among the population: elderly or disabled people in care homes, care home personnel, frontline health workers and people in a state of high dependency outside of the care home system.

The Government hopes that this first phase of vaccination will end in March, and it will then continue with the remaining groups into which the population has been divided: people over the age of 64, at-risk individuals, those who work or live in enclosed areas, those at risk for socio-economic reasons, essential workers, teachers, children, teenagers and young people, the adult population at large, pregnant or nursing women, those who are seropositive for Covid-19.

According to this calendar, it is anticipated that 70% of the population will be vaccinated by the end of the summer.

Meanwhile, several regional authorities are considering tightening restrictions again ahead of the country's Christmas celebrations, after numerous fresh outbreaks of the virus were recorded. The Mallorcan authorities have taken action already, reducing the number of people who can get together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day back down from ten to six, and re-imposing a 10pm curfew. The situation will be examined again on December 28th, but the suggestion is that these measures will more than likely be left in place over the New Year too. 

The regional health minister for Madrid, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, outlined his department's plans to scrutinise the effects of the December bank holiday weekend on Covid-19 cases before confirming restrictions for the capital and surrounding area. Authorities in Valencia have said they are monitoring the situation all the time and are willing and ready to tighten restrictions if hospital figures suggest a need to do so.

In Castilla-La Mancha, the regional president Emiliano García-Page confirmed that a fine-tuning of Christmas measures would be announced on Tuesday: "We want to transmit a message of responsibility, and now that the end of the tunnel is in sight, we don't want people to let down their guard, we want social distancing to be observed, because spreading the virus now, just months ahead of a solution in the form of a vaccine, is incomprehensible". 

Health authorities in Extremadura are paying close attention to the worrying recent rise of cases in the region and debating whether or not to allow family and friends to get together over the festive period after all. Health & Social Services minister José María Vergeles, has not ruled out backtracking on the region's published Christmas Plan if cases continue to rise over the next few days, and asked citizens to see it as a safety measure, not as a threat.

Navarra has also seen a "slight increase" in Covid-19 cases since December 7th and are being "very careful" about relaxing restrictions. "The situation has stabilised, but it is a very fine balance with both positive diagnoses and hospital admissions on the rise" said the region's health minister, Santos Induráin.