The first shipment is scheduled for the 13th, and the Ministry says it will begin to administer the injections “as soon as they arrive.”
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, announced yesterday that a total of 3.3 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Spain during December (1.3 million) and January (2 million) to vaccinate children from 5 to 11 years old. As detailed in a press conference after the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, which was held yesterday in Córdoba, these doses will begin to arrive in Spain as of December 13 and will be distributed to the autonomous communities « proportionally to the child population »that each one of them has.
Spain has 3.3 million children from 5 to 11 years old, according to the data presented by Darias, so that at the end of January the children of this age group could already have at least one dose administered. “You have to do an excellent preparation to start vaccinating if authorized by the Public Health Commission,” he stressed.
In this sense, the minister advanced that on Tuesday the Commission will address this issue, once the European Medicines Agency (EMA, for its acronym in English) has already endorsed immunization in children between 5 and 11 years old. “We have everything prepared and ready if the Public Health Commission authorizes it to begin vaccination,” he insisted.
Immediate administration
The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, who participated in this meeting, demanded that the central government provide ‘Covid funds’ to the communities, since “the sixth wave highlights the need to strengthen health teams.” He also asked the Ministry to plan the “adequate distribution of vaccines and establish the criteria for their administration” to this child population, which in the Region will begin “as soon as they are received.”
Pedreño highlighted the importance of having a legal framework at the national level to “be able to apply measures such as the Covid Digital Certificate”, so that it can be required in certain acts and helps promote vaccination. Finally, he requested that the criteria for alert levels include a parameter that “measures the pressure of care in Primary Care”, an aspect that he considers “very necessary.”
Delving into the requests that the counselor made to the Government chaired by Pedro Sánchez, he requested the accreditation of more family medicine places for this specialty. For this, he pointed out that it would be necessary to “provide the autonomies with financing” to achieve the expansion of the supply of places. Another of the fundamental aspects that received the approval yesterday in the Plenary of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System are the new strategies for mental health and digital health. Among them, the Mental Health Strategy 2022-2026 stands out, which will be approved tomorrow by the Council of Ministers.
Without being renewed since 2009, this planning includes, among other aspects, the Action Plan on Mental Health and Covid-19, which will have a budget of one hundred million euros for the next three years. In addition, the specialty of child and adolescent psychiatry is incorporated into the Specialized Health Training, as well as a 24-hour, free and confidential information telephone, for professional care and support in the event of suicidal behavior, with the ability to quickly refer to emergency services corresponding. With the imminent approval of this strategy, Pedreño asked Madrid that such planning be accompanied “by an appropriate financial allocation for the communities” that allows the improvement of mental health care that the initiative seeks to carry out.
Concern about Ómicron’s presence in Spain grew yesterday after the Community of Madrid confirmed the first case due to community transmission; that is, a contagion between people who have not had previous contact with suspects and who are not sure how they have been infected.
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