Catalunya to vaccinate health workers' children to guarantee staff availability

REGIONAL health authorities in Catalunya have started vaccinating teenagers and 20-somethings who live with parents working in the medical profession to prevent staff having to be off sick.

According to the government in the north-eastern territory, this time around, nurses and doctors are not getting infected with Covid-19 in the course of their work – they are catching the virus from their children, who have not yet been immunised as regions work through their populations in descending age order.

Given that all health workers, irrespective of their own ages, were among the first to be vaccinated, they are asymptomatic when they catch the SARS-CoV-2 from their younger household members, since the jab prevents a person who becomes infected from being ill – but in accordance with procedures, anyone who tests positive must stop work and go into self-isolation.

It is not clear whether being vaccinated means a person cannot pass on the condition if they test positive for it – it is thought they are not infectious, but any incidence of contagion is treated in the same way whether or not the person has been immunised.

The jab does not mean someone cannot catch the virus, but the inoculation stops them suffering any effects from it.

At present, that overwhelming majority of Covid cases in Spain are among the under-40s, mostly the under-35s, and a handful in their early 40s, corresponding with the age groups that have not been fully immunised.

Barcelona's Hospital Clínic (pictured above) was the first to start vaccinating teenagers and the under-30s who live with parents employed at the centre.

Its head of infectious diseases, Dr Àlex Soriano, said on regional television channel TV3: “If we have a positive at home and one of our staff is a contact, this creates the possibility of high numbers of employees having to be off work to quarantine – and we cannot allow this to happen in the current situation. It's crucial to guarantee we have as many personnel on duty as possible.”

So far, across the four provinces, 827 medical workers have had to call in sick due to isolating as they have been close contacts with Covid positives and, in nearly all cases, these were their own children.

As well as needing medical staff to be on duty in case the Covid situation leads to excess hospital pressure, at this time of year, more employees are necessary even without the pandemic, due to summer tourism and an increased number of patients.

Hospital Sant Pau is planning on following suit now the regional government has authorised vaccines for health workers' children, and intensive care boss Dr Rafael Máñez at Hospital Bellvitge expects to begin very soon, given that the centre already has 50 staff self-isolating through being a 'contact' or testing positive as a result of contagion within the family.

Hospital de Mar says it was considering the same strategy, but will now wait until it is automatically the turn of the 12-30 age groups, given that these are expected to overlap. 

The centre says these ages will soon be able to book appointments freely for their jabs, but that the speed at which they get them will depend upon availability of vaccines and time slots, both of which are 'fairly limited at the moment', according to a spokesperson.