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Andalucía has 160,000 AstraZeneca doses and wants to use them 'as soon as possible'

File photograph.
File photograph. / SUR

  • The Junta's Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre, also wants to start vaccinating the essential workers aged between 55 and 65 with the formula as soon as possible

  • EUROPA PRESS

The Junta de Andalucia's Minister of Health, Jesús Aguirre, announced this Monday (22 March) that the region will restart vaccinations with the AstraZeneca formula as soon as it receives the green-light from Spain's Ministry of Health.

Speaking in Cordoba, Aguirre said Andalucía has "right now 160,000 AstraZeneca vaccines", and "we want to use them as soon as possible".

He also reiterated that he also wants to start vaccinating essential workers aged between 55 and 65 with the formula as soon as a meeting of Spain’s Interterritorial Council meeting this Monday evening gives the official go-ahead to start using the AstraZeneca formula again.

Earlier today the Vaccine Report of the Public Health Commission agreed, after three days of study, that the Ministry of Health and the autonomous regions should extend the maximum age range from the current 55 years to 65.

Aguirre has also outlined that he expects a total of 203,530 vaccines from different pharmaceutical companies to arrive in the region this week.

He went on to reveal that, so far, "only 5.11 per cent" of the Andalusian population has received the two doses of a vaccine.

Aguirre, also justified the maintenance of the provincial perimeter closures in Andalucía for the Easter holiday period, saying: "We currently have three cases of the South African strain". Meanwhile the so-called Ugandan strain continues "with three cases that we currently have in Seville".

Aguirre has clarified that, "there are many strains", but those that "are of interest are three types: those strains that are more virulent, those strains that are more contagious and those strains that do not allow themselves to be immunised by vaccines”.

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