The 73,800 AstraZeneca vaccines arrived in Euskadi on Friday is allowing Osakidetza to carry out this weekend an authentic mass vaccination blitzkrieg among the 60-year-old population, which will allow an acceleration of immunization in this age group and which is, incidentally, the beginning of the vaccination of citizens between 66 and 70 years. A group of about 130,000 people (42,000 in Gipuzkoa) who had been in limbo for weeks and who, in the midst of successive changes of opinion about who should receive the British antidote, has seen how older and younger than that age have been vaccinated. age range while they have resigned themselves to being part of the last ranks of the process.
An example of the rate that vaccination is taking is that only in Illunbe the Basque Health service has cited for this weekend to 7,200 people over 60 years, so that they receive the viral shield developed by the University of Oxford. Among them, there are for the first time people born between 1952 and 1955, who began to cite on Thursday.
The campaign to administer the 73,800 injectables began on the same Friday after their reception, but it was yesterday when he picked up cruising speed. The queues returned to the main Basque vaccination courses, such as the San Sebastián bullring or the BEC in Bizkaia. This weekend is reminiscent of Easter, when in another accelerated operation they were vaccinated 52,000 Basque citizens between Holy Saturday and Easter Monday.
With the particularity that the availability of vaccines is greater this time, so it is foreseeable that between yesterday and today vaccination records will be broken despite the holiday Saturday. The AstraZeneca batch received on Friday, which constitutes the largest shipment of this manufacturer so far, is joined by the 98,280 Pfizer units that arrived on Monday, another record amount. Along with the smaller shipments from Moderna and Janssen, the Basque Country this week has received nearly 200,000 injectables, of which it plans to administer 181,000 until Tuesday (the 107,188 planned in the initial calendar plus the 73,800 on Friday).
Organizational challenge
An amount that represents a first level organizational challenge for the Basque Government, which from the beginning of the process has defended that if at this point there is no more vaccinated population it is “due to lack of vaccines, not due to lack of Osakidetza capacity.”
Thus the things, the Basque public health service foresees exhausting the new AstraZeneca doses «during the first days next week. As is known, the British formula establishes that the second dose is administered between 10 and 12 weeks after the first, so that, unlike with Pfizer (21 days term) and Moderna (28), Osakidetza does not reserve in this units to guarantee second doses in the event of supply problems.
The keys
- 7.200
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people between 60 and 70 years old have been summoned this weekend at the Illunbe vaccination course to receive the British antidote.
- Vaccination record
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Osakidetza plans to inject 181,000 doses in a week until Tuesday: the 107,188 planned plus the 73,800 received on Friday
- Second dose
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Except for a new change in age criteria, for those now vaccinated, the second dose will also be the Oxford vaccine
Regarding the Oxford prophylaxis, something else is determined by the administrations. Such as the Public Health Commission of Spain, which brings together the Government, the autonomous communities and experts, which on Friday agreed delay second puncture until week 16 to those who had already received the first dose, thus skipping the recommendations of the laboratory and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) itself.
Of course, people who are now receiving AstraZeneca will be inoculated in a second dose with the same formula, unless there is a new change in criteria in the days to come. The doubts about what to do with the second shots that keep those who had previously received this vaccine on edge affects those under 60 years of age.
In this context, Osakidetza sources assessed yesterday that “people have responded very well to appointments”, which again demonstrates the high degree of awareness of Basque citizens regarding the convenience of getting vaccinated with any of the formulas approved by the health authorities, AstraZeneca included.
Over 70
Although the British vaccine is the great protagonist of the last minute this weekend, the vaccination schedule follows your scheduled schedule. Along with the sexagenarians, the other protagonists of this stage are the septuagenarians, who on Friday began receiving the second dose after being summoned for the first three weeks ago.
As of Wednesday (last data provided by Osakidetza), 778,721 vaccines had been administered, 87% of the 888,530 received up to that day. In the 60-69 age group, 39.9% of the population have received the first dose, mainly workers from the lower age group who are active, by virtue of their profession. Only 5.2% have received the complete guideline.
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