EUROPEAN PRESS.- The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has asked for vaccination with the second booster dose against the coronavirus after having already detected in Spain “some cases” of the XBB 1.5 variant, an omicron underline and better known as ‘Kraken’ , and also given the wave of infections in China which has required the implementation of checks on travelers arriving from the Asian country and which, as he said, “are working”.
This was stated in the context of his participation in an event at the La Hermida spa, in the Cantabrian municipality of Peñarrubia. The minister stressed that one of the lessons of the pandemic is that the coronavirus is “constantly mutating” and there are several underlinings, such as those of the omicron, which is the “dominant variant” in Spain and in the world.
“Some Cases”
One such omicron subline is XBB 1.5 or ‘Kraken’, which is seeing a “certain” increase in the US or UK and has been warned about by WHO. Darias acknowledged that “some cases” have already been observed in Spain, as indicated in the update of the epidemiological situation report of variants of COVID-19 (the document indicated that these had been detected “punctually”).
In this regard, Darias indicated that, for now, what is known “for certain is that what protects us” and “gives certainty” is vaccination. Specifically, the minister insisted on asking the population to administer the second booster dose against COVID-19 adapted to the variants. As he said, 73% of people over 80 have already received it, although this percentage wants to increase.
Darias recalled that Spain “was one of the few EU countries” where vaccination against Covid-19 has reached “100%” in this age group.
Checks on travelers from China
Instead, when asked about the possibility of tightening controls on travelers from China given the foreseeable increase that could be caused by travel caused by the celebration of the Chinese New Year at the end of the month, the minister underlined that Spain “was one of the countries that led the ‘anticipation in the adoption of measures’ in this case.
And it is that, as he said, the pandemic has taught us that we need to proceed not only with coordination, but also “with speed”. «Spain has led the EU in this case. In fact, the measures in the EU control body are the same as Spain had installed. We are carrying out checks on travelers from China and they are working and we need to continue to implement these checks and Spain is doing it in advance.
