Spanish government aims for 20 million to be vaccinated by June 2021
Four ultra-low temperature freezers to be used to store hundreds of thousands of doses in Catalonia
Up to 20 million people, that is, 42% of Spaniards, are expected to be vaccinated for Covid-19 by June 2021.
These are the most recent estimations by the Spanish government as revealed on Friday by president Pedro Sánchez and health minister Salvador Illa.
They believe that between 15 and 20 million residents in Spain will be given the jabs by May or June, as long as the European Medicines Agency gives the go-ahead to the vaccines and the doses are delivered by the scheduled dates.
Illa said that a specific date for the beginning of vaccinations cannot be set yet, but he thinks it will be in early January.
As already announced, the whole population of Spain has been divided into 15 categories in order to establish priorities, the first ones to be given the vaccine will be care home residents, health workers and those with largely dependent people living at home.
470,000 Catalans vaccinated by March
Also on Friday, the Catalan government said that around 450,000 to 470,000 people in Catalonia will be vaccinated by March, matching estimations of receiving 900,000 doses in the first quarter of 2021.
The health minister, Alba Vergés, said that the administration is ready for the whole process of vaccination and aims to immunize at least 70% of the population.
The first ones they expect are those of Pfizer, Moderna, and the Oxford one at a later stage.
In order to meet the requirements of the Pfizer vaccines, which need to be stored at -80ºC, the government has reserved four ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezers at the blood bank in order to store hundreds of thousands of doses.