ARCHIVED - Valencia region accelerates vaccination with record half a million jabs this week

Immunisation will focus mainly on the second dose for 60 and 65-year-olds in the three provinces including Alicante.

President of the Valencia region, Ximo Puig, has announced the vaccination campaign will be stepped up a gear in the three provinces of Alicante, Valencia and Castellon this week.

Half a million jabs will be administered, a new weekly record in the roll-out of the Covid vaccine, with the main focus on giving the second dose to 60 to 65-year-olds who have already received the first dose of AstraZeneca.

The immunisation of 40 to 49-year-olds will also be advanced with a view to starting the vaccination of the 30 to 39 age group, which has already begun in some inland municipalities, as well as vaccinating around 5,000 homeless people.

Puig stressed that this is a "fundamental moment for vaccination and a moment in which we must remain cautious, because the groups yet to be vaccinated are now the most sensitive to becoming infected."

According to the latest data from the Valencian region's Ministry of Health, 36.41 per cent of the population is now fully immunised against coronavirus, a total of 1,554,646 people. 

While a further, 2,401,669 people have received at least one dose of vaccine, more than half of the population across the three provinces (56 per cent).

New cases have surged in the Valencia region recently with 821 new infections announced in the last update on Friday, June 25, 120 in Alicante.

Given the hike in the figures, the Minister of Health, Ana Barceló, made a fresh call for prudence “and to maintain the enormous effort and sacrifice that has already been made to comply with sanitary restrictions and contain the pandemic".

IMAGE: GVA