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ARCHIVED - Vaccination postponed for numerous health professionals as Murcia is forced to alter its immunization campaign
Dentists remain a high priority category but dispensing chemists will have to wait
The emergence of numerous cases in which prominent politicians and others have “jumped the queue” and received their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine in Spain has obliged the national government to revise its protocols regarding the prioritization of certain groups of the population, and as a result the regional health service in Murcia is also having to alter its immunization strategy.
One of the highest-profile instances of queue-jumping involved Manuel Villegas, the former minister for Health in the regional government of Murcia, who duly resigned from his post a week ago (the case is being called "vacunagate" in the regional media). It is a direct consequence of his actions and those of others in similar positions that the region of Murcia is now to prioritize only those aged over 80 and medical staff who are considered to be in the front line: in other words, those working in hospitals and healthcare and medical centres or homes for the elderly and disabled.
Dispensing chemists, opticians and 887 people employed in young people’s centres will now have to wait until others have received the jab – with the exception of a few pharmacists who have already been vaccinated – although dentists, dental hygienists and others who by the nature of their professions have to treat patients without masks for over 15 minutes are still included in the priority group.
In terms of the vaccination campaign in Murcia, this necessitates hasty changes at an organizational level since lists of those to be vaccinated next had already been drawn up.
There are approximately 70,000 over-80s in the Region of Murcia but regional government spokesman Jaime Pérez explains that for most of them vaccination may not begin until March. First, efforts will be directed at the 2,930 patients at day care centres and others who are treated daily in their own homes, a category which includes at least 500 more.
Also awaiting vaccination are over 18,000 staff at private hospitals in the Region, and in the meantime frustration continues to build over the delays in meeting vaccination targets in order to achieve herd immunity. The latest data published by the national Ministry of Health report that under 1.3 million doses of the vaccine have so far been administered, covering under 3 per cent of the population, and that the figure rose by under 55,000 on Tuesday.
In the UK, meanwhile, daily vaccination figures have at times reached almost half a million (although the latest figure was just under 300,000) and 10 per cent of the population have received their first dose, but in Spain and elsewhere in the EU supply and distribution problems continue to hamper the campaign.