Health Dpt plans to start vaccinating 40 to 49-year-olds in two weeks

BarcelonaThe Department of Health plans to begin vaccinating people aged between 40 and 49 in two weeks, according to Tv3 and confirmed to ACN by government sources. In fact, if the current pace of delivery of doses and vaccinations is maintained, next week this group could already begin to make appointments on the Health Department's website to schedule the day and time of their immunisation, probably by next Monday, June 7, according to the same sources.

This schedule is in line with the forecasts made public by ex-minister of Health Alba Vergés a few weeks ago, when she assured that to by June the vaccination campaign of people aged between 40 and 49 would begin because "more vaccines than ever were expected". This week, for example, the largest shipments since December have arrived: a total of 715,870 doses.

Coinciding with this record delivery of vaccines, the Public Health Commission, which represents the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities, will study this Tuesday whether to expand the criteria for the administration of Janssen monodose vaccine precisely for this age group. This band is one of the largest in Catalonia: it comprises 1.3 million people.

The vaccine of the European subsidiary of Johnson&Johnson has no age limitations, but at the moment in Spain it is only being injected to population aged between 50 and 59 -who also receive Pfizer vaccines- and vulnerable groups who may be hard to bring into the system, such as seasonal workers, people in an irregular administrative situation or the homeless. It is also intended for elderly dependents and people with profound autism and severe mental illness.

However, deliveries of Janssen have been blocked due to an inspection by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States at the pharmaceutical's main plant, which makes it difficult for it to manufacture the 5.5 million doses it promised Spain before the end of June. At the moment, the autonomous communities have administered 426,065 Janssen vaccines out of the 575,825 received and the ministry trusts that the pharmaceutical company will make up for this delay in summer.