Summary of the situation

Spain registered the first million immunized on February 12, a month and a half after vaccinations began on December 27 in most of the European Union. Attending only to the population over 12 years old, the target population considered for the vaccination campaign, has received at least one dose, 90.6%, while 89% have the complete schedule.

Since the end of summer, the vaccination rate has decreased day by day. Nevertheless, injected vaccines grow back from mid-October by the approval by Health of the administration of third parties booster dose for immunosuppressed people, elderly in nursing homes and people over 65 years of age when they have completed six months of the full regimen. In the last day, just over 263,000 doses have been administered.

Likewise, those who received the Janssen single-dose vaccine – some two million people – will receive a second booster dose with an mRNA vaccine, that is, Pfizer or Moderna from November 15.

At the moment and according to the figures that the Government began to publish on October 6, more than 2.6 million people have received a booster dose.

Asturias was the first autonomous community to reach 70% of the population fully vaccinated in mid-August and, currently, all the communities and Ceuta have exceeded that threshold, while Melilla remains below.

According to the latest update from the Ministry of Health, more than 77 million doses have been delivered in Spain. These include more than 200,000 provided to the Armed Forces and more than 8,000 for Foreign Health.

Vaccination in Spain, by age

Once the first groups established in the national vaccination strategy were vaccinated – residences, health workers, large dependents – the campaign began to advance by age group. Thus, the vaccination of those over 80 began, depending on the community, in late February or early March. The goal was to complete his immunization to 80% by the end of March. At the end of April, that the entire population of that age had received at least one dose; and at the end of May, his total immunization.

The vaccination campaign has been extended to the other age groups in a descending way, although the advance occurs before 100% immunization of each group. Since July, 30-year-olds have been vaccinated, shortly afterwards the administration of doses to 20-year-olds began and adolescents from 12 to 19 began to receive the first doses in early August. Currently, all age groups of the target population have exceeded 75% of people with complete regimen.

Vaccination and its evolution, by autonomous communities

Spain reached 70% of its population with at least one dose on August 9 and on August 31, it exceeded that threshold for the population vaccinated with the full schedule. August 12th, Asturias was the first community to vaccinate 70% of its total population and it already exceeds 80% along with six other territories. La Rioja was the last to join, in November. However, the rate of vaccination varies to a certain extent between territories, which include in their campaigns the different groups, defined and updated in the national vaccination strategy.

Vaccination rate

The objective reiterated by the Government was have 70% of the Spanish population immunized thanks to the vaccine at the end of the summer. In May, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, said that Spain was “100 days away from achieving that goal”, but on August 18 – the date on which that deadline was met – there were still around three million people to be vaccinated . Just on the last day of August the threshold of 33 million vaccinated people in Spain was exceeded.

Now, vaccination enters another phase in which the focus is on re-fishing people who have not been able or have not wanted to be vaccinated. Because, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has encouraged them to reach 90%; a percentage that could be reached as early as 2022.

In the last few weeks, almost all the doses that are injected are booster or additional. If this amount is left out, the goal of 90% of the population with a complete guideline is delayed until the end of August 2022, according to the projection that DatosRTVE calculates from the doses administered each week (from Monday to Monday to include weekends).

The Executive has also reported that Spain has purchased more than 141.9 million doses for the four quarters of this year, almost half of them from Pfizer / BioNtech (72.2 million). It is followed by AstraZeneca, with more than 31 million (waiting to receive the final figure for the third quarter from the manufacturer), Moderna (28) and Janssen (10.1).

So far, the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccines are the most regular in their distribution and the ones that are maintaining the bulk of the vaccination campaign in Spain, although the Oxford / AstraZeneca drug boosted the rate of vaccination after the initial uncertainty. On the other hand, Spain will receive more than 18.5 million doses of Moderna between the second and fourth quarters of 2022.

In mid-March vaccination with AstraZeneca was suspended in Spain, but later the Interterritorial Health gave the green light to administer it only to the 60 to 69-year-old group, although the Interterritorial has lowered that range and will also administer it to vulnerable people. Spain has purchased 12.2 million doses of AstraZeneca for the first three quarters of the year.

After learning the results of the CombivacS trial – volunteers under 60 years of age who received a first dose of AstraZeneca were given a second dose of Pfizer or no brand; it was found that mixing both drugs was safe-, the Public Health Commission has decided that the communities should choose which drug to inoculate as a second injection. Most of them will give a choice, but people who choose AstraZeneca will need to sign a consent.

When the maximum immunization of each vaccine arrives

Refering to maximum effectiveness of the vaccines and taking into account the time that has to pass between the first and the second dose, that of AstraZeneca takes the longest to reach it. Between 10 and 12 weeks must elapse between doses and it takes another four to achieve the highest protection, according to the Ministry of Health. Moderna’s vaccination process takes six weeks and Pfizer’s one month.

For its part, the Janssen, which has already been approved by the EU and from which Spain will receive 5.5 million doses from April, get your maximum protection 14 days after the administration of a single dose.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, the pace varies according to countries and regions.