Spanish health officials have defined new priority groups for the coronavirus vaccine. Shortly after several regions began inoculating the 80-and-over population, the public health committee of the National Healthcare System said that next in line for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are people between 70 and 79 years of age, who will in turn be followed by the 60-to-69 age bracket.
This expert committee also decided that the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being administered to around 5.1 million essential workers (such as teachers and police officers) under 55 years of age, will next target the general population between 45 and 54, as well as any under-60s with pre-existing health conditions that make them especially vulnerable to Covid-19. These medical conditions have not yet been defined, however.
What is also unclear is exactly when these new priority groups will get their shots, as this depends on the size of the shipments and the speed of administration in a healthcare system whose resources are already stretched thin.
Different regions of Spain are proceeding at different speeds. For now, seven have begun immunizing the 80-and-over population, while most are still working on the Phase 1 priority groups: residents and workers of care facilities, health personnel and people with need for daily assistance who do not live in a care home. Meanwhile, essential workers under 55 are also getting immunised with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
Although no specific timelines have been announced, the goal is to vaccinate 80% of seniors 80 and over before the end of March, which means administering two doses to around 2.8 million people. But other groups will likely start getting their first jabs before that process ends, to ensure that there are no breaks in the pace of vaccination.
Once Spain’s seniors have been immunised, it is hoped that the epidemiological data will change significantly. Right now, eight out of every 10 deaths from Covid-19 are occurring among the elderly. Even if the virus remains in circulation the way it has to date, deaths should decline noticeably.