Illa expects 10 million people in Spain to be immunized with the Pfizer vaccine


The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, expects that the first doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 will arrive "at the beginning of next year" and that by May there will be "a relevant percentage of the vaccinated population." The Ministry estimates that Spain will have "around 20 million doses that could immunize 10 million people" - Pfizer's vaccine requires two doses per patient.

Pharmaceutical Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective

Pharmaceutical Pfizer says its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective

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"We began to see a light at the end of the tunnel," said Illa, interviewed on TVE. "This week or next we will sign more contracts with Pfizer and with other companies," he added. Spain has, at the moment, three closed contracts: with the company AstraZeneca –which develops the vaccine together with the University of Oxford–, with Sanofi and with Johnson & Johnson.

The vaccines, which will be free, will be distributed by the National Health System "at the discretion of the vaccination experts of the Autonomous Communities and the Ministry" in collaboration with the rest of the countries of the European Union.

Illa has clarified that the Government has not yet decided who it will vaccinate first, but it has not rejected the option that vaccination is mandatory: "I do not think it is necessary, [pero] it is a scenario that we should not rule out. "

By "common sense", according to Illa, the first groups to be vaccinated would be vulnerable people (for example, the elderly) and those who are in contact with these groups (such as health personnel).

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