Valencian Community to start mass vaccination program from April

Community President, Ximo Puig, said on Saturday that the Valencian Community has been guaranteed the arrival of 559,020 vaccines up to 31 March and that, assuming the shipment arrives, “as of April” a mass vaccination will get underway across the community”.

Puig held a working meeting this Saturday morning with the Vice President and Minister for Inclusive Policies, Mónica Oltra; the Minister of Health, Ana Barceló, other senior officials of the Ministry and members of the technical vaccination commission.

Following the meeting, Puig confirmed the promise of at least 559,020 doses made up with 329,940 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 40,000 doses of Moderna and 189,080 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine.

At the end of March it is expected that there will be more than 300,000 people vaccinated in the Community, with the two mandatory doses. Puig said that the priority in the immunisation process is with the most vulnerable people, especially the elderly.

Although he pointed out that the Astra Zeneca vaccine “has different considerations” and “people over 55 years of age may not be vaccinated with it in Spain,” he said that this “will open the possibility of vaccines being used in other sectors.”

Puig has said that the estimates received from the Ministry of Health and the European health authorities suggest that from April the arrival of vaccines will accelerate. For this reason, a working group has now been established to plan this new phase and starting next week they will begin to visit suitable sites in the three provinces to begin the mass vaccination process.

“In April, we will be in a position, if the pharmaceutical companies keep their promises, to consider mass vaccination so, during the coming weeks, we will be working to identify sites where they can take place as quickly as possible, so that the vast majority of Valencians can be vaccinated before or during the summer”, said the ‘president’.