Mercadona founder's wife donates three million syringes for Covid vaccine roll-out

THREE million syringes with hypodermic needles have been donated to public vaccine centres for Covid immunisation in the Comunidad Valenciana by the wife of a national supermarket chain founder.

Hortensia Herrero, a successful businesswoman in her own right who runs a charitable foundation bearing her name – and who is married to Mercadona chairman Juan Roig - supplied the equipment to help maximise the vaccine roll-out in the region, in a bid to get life back to normal as quickly as possible.

The disposable 1ml syringes with safety needles are fully compliant with the medical requisites for the inoculation programme, and will cut the cost to the public coffers involved in administering shots to, potentially, every single resident.

Vaccines nationwide are being given at central points where those whose turn it is are all called in en masse – albeit given different dates and times to avoid crowding – rather than through booking appointments at GP surgeries.

Immunisation 'centres' are set up in different towns or health service catchment areas in, usually, publicly-owned buildings, such as theatres, school classrooms and community halls.

The syringes provided by Mercadona's 'First Lady' will be distributed in all three provinces in the region for use in four different 'vaccine centres'.

These are the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, the Ciudad de la Luz ('City of Light') film studios in Alicante, the major trade fair centre near the Costa Blanca's main airport, in Elche (Alicante province), and the Congress centre in Castellón.

This is not the only mass donation the Hortensia Herrero Foundation has made since the start of the pandemic – in April last year, through her charity, Sra Herrero distributed a million masks to five hospitals in the Comunidad Valenciana, at a time when these were difficult to come by even for medical staff.

“I'm proud to be able to cooperate and do my bit in this fight against Covid-19,” said 'Mrs Mercadona'.

“Last year, I was able to help by donating masks, and at the moment, when it seems that we're finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, I'm also proud to be able to deliver syringes and hypodermic needles to contribute towards the vaccine roll-out moving at a suitable pace.”

Already, in January, regional government health authorities had placed an order for four million syringes, meaning Hortensia Herrero's three million will be a huge help and make considerable savings for the Comunidad Valenciana's public medical care system.

And this, of course, translates to more resources for treating and caring for patients in general.