The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, yesterday, during the meeting of the Interterritorial Council. /
This new batch will be used for the fourth dose for those over 80 years of age and for people admitted to residences
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, advanced yesterday the arrival, throughout this month, of 10 million doses of vaccines adapted to Ómicron that will be used as a fourth dose for those over 80 years of age and people admitted to residences. This week the first shipment of these vaccines will arrive, which will be available to the communities. The Public Health Commission will meet shortly to determine the specific start date for these inoculations.
Among that consignment of vials there will be no dose of the Spanish vaccine, the one manufactured by Hipra. Last August, the European Commission signed a joint purchase contract with the pharmaceutical company Hipra Human Health to ensure the supply of 250 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine. This vaccine is currently under evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), so if marketing authorization is received, the 14 participating countries, including Spain, will be able to buy the vaccine through this contract.
“We have the good news that there is already an EU centralized purchasing contract agreement and we are waiting for the EMA to finalize that process,” Health sources explained yesterday to this newspaper.
Darias highlights that the incidence of monkeypox is beginning to decline
Darias, who chaired the extraordinary plenary session of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, celebrated that the number of reported cases of Covid “has maintained a downward trend in the last eight weeks.” In what has to do with hospital occupancy, he highlighted that, currently, “Spain is at the lowest levels throughout the pandemic”, having around 2.5% of occupied hospital beds and 1, 4% of ICU beds.
Darias also alluded to the cases of monkeypox and pointed out that, “with all caution”, Spain is in a phase of declining transmission of this virus. To date, 6,645 cases have been reported (50 of them in the Region of Murcia).
The Interterritorial Council also addressed the distribution of 23 million to the communities to deal with rare and neurodegenerative diseases –especially Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)– and for the promotion of mental health; as well as strategies to deal with cancer.
The Ministry demands a plan to alleviate the deficit of doctors
The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, again demanded yesterday, at the meeting of the Interterritorial Council, that a plan of urgent measures be developed to alleviate the deficit of doctors in Spain. “This is a problem that is aggravated in Primary Care,” he stressed. The Ministry has requested “on several occasions the Ministry of Health to develop a plan of urgent measures at the state level to solve the lack of doctors in Spain.” Health warns of the need to have this plan to guarantee the coverage of retirements and medical leave.
The regional proposal goes through the increase of the necessary ratios in the faculties of Medicine, in order to train the specialists that society demands. The second objective is to redefine the criteria to expand the supply of places for residents in all the autonomous communities. On the other hand, Pedreño explained that the Region of Murcia is planning the vaccination campaign against Covid and against the flu, “waiting for the Ministry to indicate the start date and send the doses.”
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