Spain to give third vaccine dose to people over 60 and health workers

Spain will vaccinate with a third dose against Covid-19 to those over 60 years of age and also to health and social health personnel.

The decision was announced by the Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, after the Committee on Vaccines agreed on the convenience of this measure.

The proposal will now be submitted to the Public Health Commission, to agree on its implementation with the different regional governments.

According to the Ministry of Health, the age group between 60 and 69 years is made up of more than five million people, of which almost 98% have already completed the vaccination schedule.

Spain, one of the most advanced countries in the world in vaccination against Covid-19,  is already administering booster doses to people over 70 years of age, people with certain pathologies and those vaccinated with the single-dose Janssen vaccine.

Vaccinated with AstraZeneca

Most people aged 60 to 69 have received the AstraZeneca vaccine. They will now be given a third booster dose of the messenger RNA drugs (Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna).

The Public Health Commission, where technicians from the Ministry of Health and the regional governments discuss the strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, already established in the last update of the Vaccination Strategy that booster jabs would always be carried out with mRNA vaccines.

Pedro Sánchez announced the decision on Wednesday from Ankara, where he was to attend a bilateral meeting with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.