There will be no new time or capacity limitations for nightclubs and hotels in the absence of agreement between the autonomies and the Ministry
The Minister of Health made it clear on Tuesday what is the central strategy to fight the covid shared by the Government and autonomies: “Continue vaccinating non-stop.” Carolina Darias assured that all – the minister, public health experts and counselors – agree that the path to success is not to lower our guard with preventive measures (masks, ventilation, safety distance or avoid meetings and crowds) and « vaccinate, vaccinate and vaccinate before we get into the Christmas holidays.
Thus, the new impulse agreed on Tuesday by the experts and responsible for public health of the Government and the autonomies is to begin to inoculate as quickly as possible the third dose of the anticovid vaccine to all Spaniards from 60 to 69 years old and to the professionals of the health and social health centers, including outpatient clinics, day centers, hospitals and residences.
The idea is to end up giving a third dose of Pfizer or Moderna to the entire population, but, as happened with the first two punctures, prioritizing the groups that are considered to be at greater risk with the pandemic. The reason is that it is proven by scientific studies that after the passage of between three and six months the immunity generated by the vaccination reduces its effectiveness, so a booster dose is necessary since the risk of contagion does not stop rising from mid-October and what it is about is to avoid or minimize the sixth wave.
The third vaccination of people over 60 years of age and health workers comes after having given the booster to immunosuppressed patients, inmates in nursing homes for the elderly, citizens at high risk for underlying ailments, those over 70 years old, and those vaccinated with Janssen, as being a single-dose vaccine it has lost its effectiveness faster.
The reason for prioritizing those over 60 is that today they are the group that is most admitted to hospitals, due to more serious infections, and to overtake health and social health workers is that they are the first line of defense against the pandemic and those who can do the most. infect the most vulnerable, elderly and sick.
Darias hinted that once this new third-dose stretch is completed, others will come, since the Government has already contracted 90 million vaccines, half of which they want to use before summer. Another group that may soon be incorporated into immunization are children from 5 to 11 years old, whose vaccination could be authorized this week by the European Medicines Agency.
However, in which there was no agreement between the ministry and the autonomies, so the document returned to the drawer, was to establish new time and capacity restrictions for bars, restaurants and arcades, as well as for nightlife venues and cinemas.
The Public Health Commission did approve the new ‘covid traffic light’, the system that defines the risk levels of the pandemic and the indicators that make the new normal go from the new normal to low, medium, high or extreme risk. In which there was no consensus and was left out of the agreement is in the restrictive measures to be taken at each step. The original document contemplated the closure of the hotels at 11:00 p.m. (and at 1:00 a.m. for the nightclubs) if the average level was reached (more than 100 accumulated incidence), a situation in which a large part of the country was about to enter.
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