Valencia reached another milestone on Friday in it’s vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, having now inoculated more than half of the population, at least those over 17 years of age, with at least one dose, specifically 51.4%.
Almost 2.2 million people in the Valencian Community, and about 800,000 people in the province of Alicante, have now had both jabs, approximately three out of ten people.
The president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig, said some weeks ago that June would be the month where we would see some real movement in the numbers and as last week came to an end, a record number of more than 406,000 doses had been administered.
Medical staff are now beginning to vaccinate the group from 49 to 50 to 49 years of age while on Friday, people born in 1975 were being notified.
However, the spokesperson for the Generalitat, Mónica Oltra, said on Friday that the vaccine allocation strategy is all wrong and that numbers should be based on the ‘real’ vaccination figures and not just those who are registered as, within the Valencian Community, over 100,000 of the vaccinations have been carried out on people who are living here at this particular time, people from other regions or from other countries, who have second residences in the community. She says that these inoculations are not being considered in the numbers of vaccines that are being delivered.
She cited the example of Madrid Politician Pepe Pérez who is registered in Madrid but has a residence in Gandia. He is currently living in Gandia which is where he was vaccinated, and yet his dose of the vaccine was delivered to Madrid and not to the Community.
Meanwhile, the SATSE nursing union has criticised the Community as it’s nurses continue to work an average of 1,500 overtime hours every day, so as not to disrupt the rhythm of the vaccination program, because the Ministry of Health “has blocked the hiring of additional nurses”, deciding only to bring them in as summer holiday replacements as of 1 July, when they could have been taken on in June to reinforce the vaccination timetable.”
As vaccinations continue at a brisk rate there is more good news with current figures showing that the incidence of coronavirus in the province of Alicante is three times lower than the average across Spain. It is lower also than in many countries of the European Union and in the United States.
The rate of the Alicante incidence currently stands at 33.41 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the data update on Friday from the Ministry of Health, compared to the 110 registered across the whole of Spain. The figure is the lowest of all the country’s provinces, with the Valencian Community also recording the lowest regional data, with 40.16.
The province’s index of active cases is also far below the average currently being experienced by countries such as the Netherlands (199), Belgium (187) and France (154). It is also lower than others with a more encouraging situation such as Italy (59), Germany (56) and the Czech Republic (47).
It should also be noted that the upward trend of the contagion rate in the province has moderated in recent days. Since the previous update of the data, on Tuesday of this week, it has barely grown seven tenths. Thus, Alicante continues to be at low risk, somewhat further from the new normal but still a long way from the medium risk threshold.
The number of people currently being treated for the virus is 631, which is 12 more than last Tuesday.
Examples of Incidence in selected municipalities: San Fulgencio 0, Santa Pola 72.07, Guardamar 75.71, Torrevieja 29.53, Orihuela 15.29, Pilar de la Horadada 17.9, Almoradi 9.43, Los Montesinos 0, Rojales 6.
