COVID-19

SPAIN rides high in the charts for its success in delivering two doses of Covid-19 vaccine to people – Israel is the world leader – but the strategy is being questioned. According to ‘Our World in Data’ run by Oxford University, 2.4% of the population have received full protection have received two jabs; Israel has managed a third. While this is a success, the flip side is that every second […]

RESEARCHERS have found a single dose of the Pfizer shot – the first vaccine brought into use in Spain to combat the Covid-19 pandemic – is 85% effective. The medical study will fuel the debate over the two-dose recommendation for the jab as governments grapple with supply shortages across the European Union and the call for rich countries to donated vaccines to poorer neighbours. Health workers at the Sheba Medical […]

SPAIN has announced the next priority groups in line to receive a Covid-19 shot as regions begin to vaccinate the over-80s. The public health committee of the national healthcare system puts the 60 to 79 age bracket next in line in the queue – those aged between 70 and 79 first, followed by the 60 to 69-year-olds - as well as people aged under 60 with underlying medical conditions. After […]

SPAIN has started vaccinating people aged over 80 in the drive to meet the government target of having 70% of the population immunised against Covid-19 by the end of summer. At least seven of the country’s regional authorities - Andalusia, Aragón, Murcia, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Catalonia and Valencia - have started or are ready to give the jab to the group; even as they finish the first priority stage […]

SCIENTISTS at technical institute AIMPLAS have developed a new antibody test for Covid-19 with 98% accuracy and capable of detecting the ‘British’ variant of the virus. Based in Paterna and backed by the Valencia government’s ministry of innovation, the technology is capable of being scaled up to industrial levels for mass manufacture and is more accurate than current commercially available tests. The project to find a new rapid antigen test […]

SPANISH health chiefs predict the country will meet its target of vaccinating 70% of the population by summer with a fourth shot expected to be available by March 8. The current speed of the immunisation programme would mean the country will fall short of the milestone; like many countries in the EU, it is hampered by the slow arrival of doses – at present 90% are used and a small […]

THE World Health Organisation has warned Spain not to relax its guard too quickly as the rate of contagion of coronavirus falls across the country. Experts at WHO say a relative decrease is not the same as low transmission – even with the 14-day incidence rate falling to 584 per 100,000, down from a peak of 900 in late January; it is still more than twice the threshold considered an […]

THE bishop of Cartagena José Manuel Lorca Planes and four other leading Catholic Church officials in Murcia have been accused of jumping the queue to receive Covid-19 vaccines. Spanish newspaper La Opinión de Murcia reported they passed themselves off as chaplains of a care home in order to receive a shot. Accusations of cheating by politicians and public officials to obtain protection against the virus have become a major scandal […]

SPANISH regional governments are pressing central government to allow a higher age limit for people to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19. They feel the current restriction of the shot to people under 55 is too strict; especially as the World Health Organisation has insisted the vaccine is safe for the over-65 population. Madrid, Andalusia and Catalonia all feel the age limit is too severe and hampers the vaccination programme […]