The effects of the long-awaited vaccine against coronavirus they begin to be noticed already in the Murcia region. At least in nursing homes, whose users and workers have had the second dose for several weeks and where, to date, no positive case of Covid-19 has been registered, after a year in which the pandemic has spread. It has especially primed with this group. This was announced yesterday by the Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, who put the focus beyond the influence that the sharp decline in incidence in the Community may have had on this data, and praised the effect of immunization in the centers.
“This suggests the positive aspect of vaccination,” Pedreño explained. However, the counselor clarified that “these are not data based on scientific evidence, but it makes us think so because recently published studies in Israel have just confirmed that the vaccination of 25% of the population is giving positive results and is preventing infections and even hospital admissions ”.
For this reason, both the Ministry of Health and the Murcian Institute of Social Action (Imas) have begun to review the protocols to “return normality” to residences “if the epidemiological situation allows it.” Because, as Salud recalled, “the risk continues and you cannot lower your guard. We have to be very careful. Thus, in the coming days, the restrictions on family visits and the activities of the centers could be relaxed, which in many cases have been suspended since the start of the pandemic, with the corresponding repercussions for users.
More than 300 deceased
Thus, nursing homes for the elderly begin to see the light after many months immersed in a tunnel from which, despite everything, the more than 300 elderly people who have lost their lives in these centers due to Covid-19 have not been able to get out since March in the Community, 108 only in this third wave. And that the Region of Murcia continues to be one of the autonomous regions with the lowest incidence of the disease in nursing homes, where almost 600 positives have been registered between December and February.
However, and despite the fact that the number of infections has once again been very high in this third wave, what Health is clear about is that the vaccine has also managed to reduce mortality rates in the centers. It is true that immunity did not arrive in time to stop the new onslaught of the coronavirus in residences, since the first doses of Pfizer arrived when the Region already had several active outbreaks in different nursing homes. But vaccination has managed to lower the relationship between infections and deaths from 22% to 17%, according to data managed by Health.
According to sources from the Ministry, “the efficacy of the vaccine is 95%, as clinical studies have shown.” However, the same sources explain that “no test in this regard is being done in the Community residences, because such tests are not recommended.” In other words, “there is no serological test that is currently validated to check the immunity developed.”
Almost 46,000 people have already taken the two doses in the Region
Until yesterday, Monday, the Murcia Region had administered 106,418 of the 123,585 Pfizer-Biontech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 received (86.1%), while a total of 45,646 people have already inoculated both doses and are immunized. In state terms, 3,090,351 prophylactics (85.3%) of the vaccines distributed among the autonomous communities have been injected, amounting to 3,622,165 units. Likewise, 1,197,061 people throughout Spain have already received the complete schedule of the vaccine.
Data from the Ministry of Health indicate that until February 22, a total of 3,012,165 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been received in Spain, with 2,837,196 doses administered and 1,175,691 people who have received both doses; 192,000 corresponding to Moderna, with 132,433 already inoculated and 21,370 people who have been injected with the two doses; and 418,000 from AstraZeneca, with 120,722 doses administered.
By autonomous communities, Aragon leads the rate of vaccination with 95% of the doses received administered, while the Basque Country has only inoculated 72.8%.
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