Massive arrival of vaccines in Catalonia: 566,900 doses by Friday

Santa Coloma de GramenetThe massive arrival of vaccines is starting to become a reality. The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, announced on Wednesday that the State will distribute a total of 4 million vaccines against covid, two million more than expected. Spain will have 1.68 million extra vaccines from AstraZeneca and 400,000 from Moderna, when the initial forecast was for just over 200,000 from each supplier. As for Pfizer and Janssen, the State has already distributed 1.7 million and 126,000 doses, respectively

Catalonia will receive at least 566,900 vaccines from the four licensed producers this week, 348,600 of which have already arrived and are being distributed among the vaccination teams. The rest, 218,300, will be delivered on Friday and most will be from AstraZeneca, which this week will send a batch with more than 258,600 doses. Sources in the Department of Health valued very positively the substantial increase in vaccines, which is a record number since the vaccination campaign began last December.

Accelerate the range of 60 to 69 years

However, the same sources point out that the fact that the bulk of vaccines are arriving on Friday will mean they will only be administered next week. At the moment, the Department of Health will offer about 20,000 vaccination appointments so that the population between 60 and 69 years can sign up, since they are the doses that have been insured.

When the vaccines arrive on Friday, the department continues, more shifts will be opened and "the pace will accelerate at the Fira de Barcelona", the large space that has opened this week with the capacity to put thousands of doses a day. As for the Camp Nou, the other large space in Barcelona that will be transformed into a mass vaccination point, Government sources explain that they still do not trust AstraZeneca's forecasts and that is why they are prioritising Fira for the moment.

The Spanish government has stressed in a statement that the massive arrival of vaccines shows that the State is "in an important moment of increased shipments with a trend that will continue throughout the month of May and especially in June". This, they claim, will allow "vaccination targets to be met", meaning 70% of the Spanish population would have to be immunised by summer. Sánchez made the announcement during a visit to the Basic Research Center of pharmaceutical Janssen in Toledo, where he stressed that two out of three Spaniards over the age of 60 have already received at least one dose.