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COVID-19

Spain to vaccinate children aged 12 to 17 against Covid-19 before September

Spain said Friday it wants to offer Covid-19 vaccines to everyone aged between 12 and 17 before the start of the new school year in September.

Published: 4 June 2021 12:36 CEST
Spain to vaccinate children aged 12 to 17 against Covid-19 before September
Spain to vaccinate kids aged 12-17 before September. Photo: Patrick T. FALLON / AFP

Health Minister Carolina Darias told public television TVE the government will propose the measure to the public health commission which then must approve the move.

The plan is to immunise 12- to 17-year-olds “about two weeks before” the start of the new school year in September, she said.

The European Medicines Agency approved last week the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus jab for 12- to 15-year-olds, the first vaccine to get the green light for children in the EU.

France announced Wednesday it will start offering Covid-19 vaccines to all 12- to 18-year-olds from June 15th.

Italy on Thursday opened vaccinations for everybody over the age of 12, while Germany has also said vaccines will be offered to children over the age of 12.

Spain, a nation of around 47 million people, is one of the European countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with over 80,000 Covid-19 deaths recorded so far.

The country plans to have 70 percent of its population fully vaccinated by the end of the summer.

Just over one in five people, 21 percent, has been fully vaccinated while 39.5 percent have received at least one dose.

READ ALSO: Region by region: How to get a Covid-19 vaccination certificate in Spain

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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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