Most communities will administer the doses of the infant serum at health centres, hospitals and designated points, and only five will do so at schools.
The vaccination campaign against covid for almost 3.3 million children aged 5 to 11 years began last Wednesday in Spain in health centres, hospitals and vaccination points set up and only five communities have also opted for schools.
Nearly 3.3 million children aged 5 to 11 are to be vaccinated against covid-19 in an immunisation campaign that kicks off on Wednesday in Spain. The jabs will be carried out in health centres, hospitals and points set up so far as vaccination points and pavilions. Only five communities have also opted to do so in schools.
The communities have already set up their devices and appointment systems, which have already provided some data on the start of the campaign: in Catalonia, more than 45,000 appointments were made in the first hours of the service opening on Monday, while in the Basque Country more than 16,000 appointments were made in just four hours, according to Efe.
In addition, in Cantabria, 3,684 self-appointments were arranged in the early hours of Monday. In Murcia, 1,000 children between the ages of 8 and 11 are scheduled to be vaccinated in Lorca on Wednesday afternoon at the start of the campaign. Meanwhile, Galicia plans to inoculate the first 60,000 doses between 15 and 18 December to children aged between 11 and 9.
It was last Monday when the first consignment of paediatric vaccines against covid arrived in Spain with a total of 1.3 million doses from Pfizer. The Ministry of Health has been responsible for their distribution to the communities so that they can begin the inoculation this Wednesday at the Buenavista health centre in Toledo.
Appeal to Families
The Spanish Association of Primary Care Paediatrics (AEPap) on Tuesday called on parents to opt for vaccination of their children because “children are not exempt from suffering serious forms of covid although the number of complications is small in relation to adults”.
The paediatric presentation of Pfizer’s vaccine has shown efficacy against symptomatic covid of 90.7% in clinical trials, with lower reactogenicity than in the 16-25 year age group.
After the injection, as with older children, the child should be observed for 15 minutes to detect immediate reactions. In people with a history of a severe allergic reaction, regardless of the cause, monitoring should be maintained for up to 30 minutes.
As agreed by the Public Health Commission, the recommendation is to start the campaign with high-risk children and older children and then move downwards, although each community has the flexibility to adapt it to their circumstances.
The Pfizer vials for children will be administered mainly in health centres and places already set up for vaccination until now, such as wards, vaccine dromes and also in hospitals.
Three communities (Comunidad Valenciana, La Rioja and Extremadura) have opted for vaccinating in schools and another two (Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia) are also incorporating them in a mixed format with health centres. In order to vaccinate children in schools, health authorities ask families for a letter of consent.
At least five others (Asturias, Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Navarre and Murcia) have discarded this option as they consider that there are sufficient places to give the vaccine to children and the fact that it is in an out-of-school place ensures the accompaniment of the parent and, therefore, consent. The Community of Madrid has opted for one of its 25 public hospitals and Castilla y León for the vaccine dromes.
The Spanish Association of Primary Care Paediatrics (AEPap) on Tuesday called on parents to opt for vaccination of their children because “children are not exempt from suffering serious forms of covid although the number of complications is small in relation to adults”. The paediatric form of Pfizer’s vaccine has shown 90.7% efficacy against symptomatic covid in clinical trials, with lower reactogenicity than in the 16-25 age group.