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COVID-19 VACCINES

When will people under 40 in Spain be able to get their Covid booster shot?

With many Covid health passes due to expire in February for people without a booster shot, we find out the latest on why Spain is taking so long to offer this reinforcement dose to people under 40 in the country and when they’re likely to be eligible. 

booster shot under 40s spain
The Spanish government has not yet announced when under 40s will be able to have a Covid vaccine reinforcement dose. (Photo by JOSE JORDAN / AFP)

As infection rates started to surge under the Omicron variant in November, the EU announced it would limit the validity of its flagship Covid-19 certificate to nine months from February 2022, a document which can be updated by getting a booster dose.

Some Member States are fully on board with the measure. Austria announced in December that tourists will now need to show proof of a booster dose to enter the country and Croatia, Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands intend to follow suit soon. 

Spanish authorities have so far not spoken out specifically about whether they will enforce the EU’s new Covid certificate rules for travellers or domestically, perhaps because on this occasion the country’s booster dose campaign is lagging behind other countries in Europe.

European countries such as Malta, Ireland, Austria and Italy have administered more booster doses to their populations than Spain. Graph: Our World in Data

As of January 11th, exactly a third of Spain’s population – 33.3 percent – has had a booster dose, but whereas other European countries have opened up reinforcement vaccination to all adult age groups, Spain has followed the same rigid and staggered approach – from oldest to youngest, one year at a time – that it’s used since the start of the campaign. 

So when will people aged 30 to 39 be eligible for their Covid-19 booster in Spain?

The Spanish government has not yet announced when, but some regions are pushing for it to happen as soon as possible as they’ve already given booster shots to most of their residents 40 or older. 

The last age groups included in the campaign were people in their fifties and forties on December 16th, and some autonomous communities have opened up appointments for everyone within these two age groups. 

Galicia wants to start administering booster doses to people in their thirties now, as does Asturias and Andalusia.

“We cannot wait until March for the booster dose of Covid for people under 40, more vaccines have to arrive,” Elías Bendodo, Andalusia’s Minister of Public Administration said in an interview with Spanish news agency Europa Press in late December. 

“We’re going to ask the national government to speed up and multiply the arrival of vaccines to our region. We need to give the remaining population groups a booster dose now, but for this the Spanish government has to send them to us.”  

According to Spanish medical daily Redacción Médica, Spain’s Health Ministry is currently studying whether to reduce the waiting period to receive the Covid-19 booster dose after the initial vaccination from six to three months.

This may contribute to speeding up booster doses for some under-40s in Spain but millions of people in their thirties received their initial Covid-19 vaccination in July and August which would mean they are due a reinforcement jab now in January and February 2022.

Spain’s Health Ministry did announce in early January that people aged under 65 who have been infected with Covid-19 will now have to wait at least four weeks to receive their booster doses, something some health experts have said makes no sense as a person’s natural immunity is at top strength after recovering from the virus.

Why is Spain taking so long to decide on booster doses for adults under 40?

Aside from their rigid MO and reliance on vaccine deliveries from the EU, Spanish authorities may also be dragging their heels on this because Omicron has thrown their previous train of thought out of the window, and now they’re not sure how best to act next.

With 3 percent of the country’s population having contracted the virus over the past two weeks and a record high infection rate, everything from the booster’s efficiency after illness, to the quarantine periods and how to classify the virus are now being called into question. 

READ MORE: Spain’s health experts divided over whether Covid-19 should be treated like flu

Nonetheless, there’s a high likelihood that people aged 30 to 39 will be included in Spain’s booster shot plans over the course of January, or at least informed of when they will be.

In order for people in Spain in their thirties and twenties not to be faced with the prospect of their Covid certificates becoming invalid for travel in the EU, most of them would need to have received a Covid-19 booster shot by March or April 2022 to avoid this scenario.

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COVID-19 VACCINES

Spain starts fourth Covid vaccine rollout for over-80s

Spanish health authorities started offering a second Covid-19 booster dose to people over 80 and those in care homes on Monday September 26th, a campaign which also includes the flu vaccine for those who wish to have it.

Spain starts fourth Covid vaccine rollout for over-80s

In early September, Spain’s Public Health Commission marked September 26th 2022 in the calendar as the start date for their fourth vaccine rollout for over-80s and care home residents in Spain. 

As planned, the campaign has started in all Spanish regions on that date, except for in Andalusia, where it will begin on October 3rd.

The vaccines to be used will the new inoculations developed by Moderna and Pfizer against the Omicron BA.1 sub-variant, serums approved by the European Medicines Agency on September 1st. 

“(They) can extend protection against different variants and are therefore expected to help maintain optimal protection” against COVID-19 as the virus evolves, the EMA said.

The inoculations “target the Omicron BA.1 sub-variant in addition to the original strain” of the coronavirus, the Amsterdam-based agency added in a statement.

Around ten million of these doses have been delivered to Spain in the past weeks, a sufficient amount to inoculate the 2.8 million people in the country who are above the age of 80.

The plan is to offer a second booster dose to the rest of the population, moving progressively down from oldest to youngest, with over-60s next in line. 

People aged 80 or older as well as those in care homes who have had Covid-19 since their last vaccination against the coronavirus are advised to wait until three months after their infection before getting a second booster dose.

It’s taken several months for the Spanish government to decide when to offer additional booster doses to its geriatric population, as the Health Ministry confirmed there would be a second Covid-19 booster for them on June 9th and the decision had been in the pipeline since April, but they argued that “the most appropriate moment must be established according to the epidemiological situation”.

Until now, the fourth dose has only been made available to around 120,000 people in Spain classified as vulnerable, including people with cancer, HIV patients, those who have had a transplant or are receiving dialysis.

Spain’s Health Ministry wanted all of the country’s 17 regions to kick off their flu vaccination campaign on the same day – September 26th – but not all autonomous communities have received the necessary flu vaccine doses for this double inoculation campaign to go ahead on time.

This means that regional authorities across the country will begin their joint flu and Covid vaccination campaigns on different dates in late September or throughout the month of October. 

In Andalusia the Covid-flu vaccination campaign starts on October 3rd, in Aragón and Navarre on October 10th, in the Balearics on October 13th, in Asturias, Cantabria, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and Castilla y León all on September 26th, whereas in the remaining regions the date for the double vaccination campaign is not yet known.

Around 54 percent of Spain’s population has had a Covid-19 booster dose (less potent than the initial two-dose vaccination), but the rates are lower among younger people.

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