Spain will begin to vaccinate children aged between five and 11 years old against Covid-19 from 15th December. The country’s Public Health Commission has approved the inoculations among the under-12s after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for this age group was approved by the European Medicines Agency.
The campaign will begin as soon as the first vials arrive in Spain, something that is due to happen next week. From there, the vaccines will be distributed among the country’s regions, which will be able to begin the vaccination process. In Spain, each of the 17 territories is in charge of its own healthcare systems, vaccination programs and coronavirus restrictions.
It is not yet clear whether all regional governments in Spain will follow the same strategy, and whether this will involve GP appointments, mass vaccination in the same way as for adults this year, or whether children will have their injections at school – although as the winter term ends about a week before Christmas, it is likely that only the younger age groups would be vaccinated between classes.
The Health Ministry is expecting to receive 3.2 million doses during December and January, which will be enough to administer a first shot to practically all children in Spain aged between five and 11, who number 3.3 million. The second dose will be administered eight weeks later.
Experts believe that the biggest challenge will be convincing adults who refuse to be immunised to go ahead and have their jabs, and that where they are parents or guardians, to persuade them of the need to inoculate their kids.
However, Dr Ángel Hernández-Merino, an expert from the Spanish Paediatrics Association says those adults who are the most reticent – or the most lax – about having vaccines themselves rarely fail to have their children jabbed.
Secretary of State for Health, Silvia Calzón, said the incidence of Covid contagion is highest among the non-vaccinated – adults who have not been immunised have a nine times greater mortality risk if they catch the condition, according to the medical community – and that the main age group currently affected by Covid are those who have children in primary school.
The under-12s are the only age group not to be included in Spain’s ongoing vaccination campaign, and is also the group with the highest incidence of cases. After children, the groups with the highest incidence rate are the 30- to 50-year-olds, which coincides with the ages of most parents of these youngsters.
Over nine in 10 adults and children aged 12 and over in Spain have been fully immunised, with older age groups now getting appointments through for their booster jab. But kids who, until now, have been considered too young for the vaccine until conclusive evidence was obtained to show it would be effective and safe for them, are more likely to pass Covid to their parents if they catch it, and their parents are more likely to be very ill with it, if they themselves are not immunised.