Spain to keep records of ‘vaccine refusers’ | Abroad

This is what the Spanish Minister of Health Salvador Illa said on Monday in an interview to television channel La Sexta. Illa reiterated that the coronavirus vaccine will not be mandatory. But whoever refuses such a vaccine will be put on a list that will be shared with other countries in Europe, he continued. Illa further clarified that it will concern people who were offered a vaccine, but who declined that offer. The document will not be made public and is prepared with “the utmost respect for the protection of private data,” the minister assured.

Many vaccine doubters

In Spain many people are skeptical. According to the most recent data, the proportion of the population that does not want to be vaccinated has fallen dramatically in Spain, from 47 percent in November to 28 percent in December, but still high. The percentage of Spaniards who are willing to receive a vaccine rose slightly in the same period, from 36.8 to 40.5 percent.

The government, led by the socialist Pedro Sánchez, aims to vaccinate 2.5 million people, who belong to the priority or most vulnerable groups, by the end of February and 15 to 20 million people by the summer.

Spain

Like many European countries, Spain launched the coronavirus vaccination campaign on Sunday with the vaccine developed by pharmaceuticals Pfizer and BioNTech.

The number of deaths from Covid-19 passed 50,000 in Spain on Monday. Nearly 1.9 million people are infected with the coronavirus. The country is one of the most affected European countries by the virus.

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