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VACCINE

How Spain’s tourist landmarks could become Covid vaccination centres

Imagine queuing up to enter one of Spain’s most visited tourist sites, not to marvel at the grandeur or gaze at the sculptures but to receive a vaccine against Covid-19.

Published: 9 February 2021 13:53 CET
How Spain’s tourist landmarks could become Covid vaccination centres
Barcelona's Sagrada Familia is one of the sites chosen as a vaccination centre. Photo: AFP

This is the plan put forward by Catalonia’s public health secretary who believes that situating mass vaccination centres inside landmarks could help encourage people to get the jab.

Dr Josep Argimon suggested that Barça’s Camp Nou and Gaudi’s Sagrada Família would make ideal vaccination centres during an interview with RadioCat broadcast on Tuesday.

Not only are they vast spaces with easy access and good ventilation, all prerequisites for vaccination centres, but they are emblematic places that would inspire people to come, he explained.

Catalan health authorities have yet to approve the plan and will seek permission for Camp Nou once the new president of Barcelona’s Football Club is elected in March.

Spain will launch Phase Two of its vaccination programme before completing Phase One after deciding that the Oxford developed Astra-Zeneca vaccine will only be given to those aged under-55.

This phase will see those workers considered essential but not on the frontline of Covid care, such as pharmacists and physiotherapists, under the age threshold given the Astra-Zeneca vaccine.

Elderly in residential care homes, those that care for them, and frontline health workers all fall in the Phase One priority group and Spain has already administered 1.87 million doses produced by Pfizer and Moderna.

Spain has a target of vaccinating 70 percent of its population by summer.

Nearly three quarters of Spaniards are willing to receive a shot as soon as one became available, according to a poll by the Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS).

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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