Direct Latest news of the coronavirus
Vaccination: Almost 2.3 million people will be immunized in Spain in 12 weeks
When you read these lines, the long-awaited Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with which vaccination will begin in Europe on Sunday 27th will be in full swing to Spain.
Several trucks guarded by policemen left this Thursday with the first doses of the Belgian city of Puurs, while in Spain we were with the last purchases and preparations for Christmas Eve dinner.
When we are in full Christmas hangover, on Saturday 26,
a first batch of doses will arrive at a warehouse that the company
ía Pfizer has in Guadalajara
, province where the vaccination will begin.
From that first shipment, and as the Minister of Health explained on Wednesday,
Salvador Illa
, every Monday for 12 weeks
an average of 350,000 doses will be received to complete the 4,591,275 that Spain will receive
From Guadalajara the vaccines will depart
50 regular points assigned by the CCAA
and agreed with the US laboratory, which will be the points to which each weekly shipment reaches from Monday 28th. From those 50 points they will be taken to about
13,000 vaccination centers
among all the autonomous communities, guarded by the forces and security of the state (National Police and Civil Guard, with the cooperation also of the Ertzaintza, the Mossos d'Esquadra and the Navarra Foral Police).
Interior maintains enough tightness on the device in order to guarantee the transport and storage of the items and
prevent theft or cyber attacks
.
Also the CCAA that, with exceptions, have not revealed where they will keep them.
Some of them have given some details of the start of the campaign this Sunday
, As the
number of doses they will receive in this almost testimonial shipment
(Andalusia 1,980 doses, Madrid 1,200 or País Vasco 405), the weekly amount (an average of almost 27,000 doses in Castilla y León or 30,000 in Valencia) or
the place where they are going to start immunizing
: in Navarra 150 people from the El Vergel residence in Pamplona;
in Madrid, three residences in the capital selected for their size and the number of people they host (Vallecas residence, Las Azaleas residence; and the Parque Almansa residence).
In the case of the Canary Islands, for example, the first doses will arrive at the Tenerife North airport in a military plane early on Sunday and from there they will be distributed by three helicopters to the rest of the islands to vaccinate 360 residents of health centers that day. older.
wise men
That will distribute this precious gift throughout Spain will be Logista, a company that distributes products and services, according to sources from pharmaceutical distribution to EL MUNDO.
Logista will distribute vaccines statewide from airports to storage centers
of the autonomous communities and has already signed with several of them, such as Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha or the Basque Country, to also take care of the distribution at the regional level.
Thus, the company is the best positioned to also distribute Moderna's vaccine in the event that the
European Medicines Agency (EMA)
approves it (meets and issues an opinion on January 6), especially considering that Logista already works with
Laboratorios Rovi, which is in charge of packaging Moderna's vaccine in Spain
Safety is not limited to transport and custody, but also to the way the vaccine is packaged and preserved.
It should be remembered that the immunization of Pfizer-BioNTech starts from
recommended storage conditions -75 ° C ± 15 ° C
.
The pharmaceutical company has innovated in packaging and storage thinking about the different possible locations
in which the vaccine will be and in maintaining the cold chain.
Thus, they have developed specific temperature-controlled containers that use dry ice to preserve the recommended conditions of -70ºC for up to 10 days (unopened).
These insulated containers are recyclable and
carry GPS-enabled thermal sensors
allowing a control tower to track the location and temperature of each vaccine shipment through its pre-established routes.When a thermal container with vials is received there are several ways to store them.
One of these is ultra low temperature freezers, which can have a shelf life of up to six months.
But to avoid the enormous investment that this entails, since few hospitals have this type of freezer (for medicines, therapies and tissue samples), you can also opt for a second option: using those same thermal containers in which the vaccines as temporary storage,
filling for this with dry ice every five days until reaching a maximum of 30 days
After those 30 days in the thermal containers with dry ice,
the vaccine can be stored for an additional five days in refrigeration temperatures between 2ºC and 8ºC
.
That is, in total up to 35 days of margin to be able to administer it to a person.
Of course, once defrosted and stored in those refrigeration conditions of between 2ºC and 8ºC,
the vaccine cannot be refrozen
(exactly the same as with food).
To continue reading for free
Sign inSign up
Or
subscribe to Premium
and you will have access to all the web content of El Mundo
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more