Covid-19: Spain accelerates its vaccination campaign

Audio 02:29

A Spanish caregiver is vaccinated against Covid-19 in Pamplona on January 20, 2021. AP - Alvaro Barrientos

By: Elise Gazengel

6 min

In Spain, 3 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine (February 19) and the Spanish government has announced that in May it will have immunized between 15 and 20 million people out of 46 million inhabitants.

The goal is above all to save the summer campaign. 

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Spain is stepping up its vaccination campaign.

And in Catalonia, to keep up the pace, the vaccinated are called to specific places.

In the suburbs of Barcelona, ​​in l'Hospitalet, it is in the lobby of a hotel that Francisco Juan, 77, has just received his first dose of Pfizer vaccine: “ 

The antigen test, they did it to us in a municipal hall and I think that wherever they can it is better, without problem in a hotel, and then if there is no one here we take the opportunity so that the tourists come back quickly

.

"

In remission from cancer and the father of a disabled adult in his charge, Francisco is part of the public who can be vaccinated during this second phase.

In the patio of the hotel where he waits 15 minutes before returning home, he expresses his relief: "

 For the moment I feel good, afterwards I don't know but hey, we will take a paracetamol in case we have. a little discomfort this afternoon… but that's fine and I believe that the joy of being vaccinated will exceed the small embarrassment that we might have.

 "

Carmen Lecumberri is a nurse and responsible for this "health hotel" whose lobby is not the only space mobilized these days: " 

This hotel has been open since August and upstairs we have positive people on the floor. Covid who cannot do the fortnight at home properly and when the vaccination campaign started we empowered it as a mass vaccination point. 

"

Without interruption, from Monday to Sunday, Carmen and her colleagues will vaccinate all those who can come to the hotel.

For the others, the home vaccination should start soon: “ 

We will go to people's homes but we must prepare because the Pfizer vaccine that we are administering at the moment is very difficult to transport.

We will be able to do this because we will have special refrigerators but that requires logistics and it takes more time than for those who can move here where it is immediate. 

" 

A rapid vaccination which arrives sooner than most of the lucky vaccinees imagined, like Adoración López, 80: “ 

I did not expect it so soon.

When they called me this week I thought it would be for this summer… but the sooner the better!

And I hope that this summer we will all be vaccinated and that normal life will resume for all. 

"

Spain hopes that in July 70% of the country will be vaccinated, which would allow it to save the summer campaign and this time fill its hotels with tourists. 

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• Spain

• Vaccines

• Coronavirus