Mass vaccination delayed by lack of jabs

MASS immunisation of people across Valencia cannot immediately start because of a lack of shots available to the region’s health services.

President of the Valencia government Ximo Puig stressed the “fundamental” thing was to ensure all priority groups received a shot this month.

He said he was committed to “decisive” progress in the vaccination programme with more doses arriving.

“We are going to receive more than 60,000 vaccines from the different pharmaceutical companies and we re already in the process of finalising our objective by mid-month we have the people most at risk vaccinated; especially in residences and health professionals,” he said.

However, he said mass vaccination could not start immediately because “we still do not have enough vaccines”.

The president added: “We have a few weeks to clearly visualise the logistics needed for mass vaccination in the different areas of the Valencia community,

“We have to be aware that each vaccine needs different handling and specific needs as to storage and transport; and that creates different problems – it is not as easy nor is it exactly the same as the flu vaccination.”

He committed to liaising with local authorities and other bodies wishing to collaborate in the vaccination programme, saying “these will be very important so that when we do have the vaccines, people are vaccinated as quickly as possible.”