The COVID-19 vaccination is two years old and more than 104 million doses have been given

Today, 27 December 2022, Spain marks two years since the launch of the successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign that, in this time, has reached a total of 39,279,291 people in our country, 93.1% of the population over 12 years old. So far, 104,045,019 doses have been administered.

The number of people fully vaccinated totals 39,202,284 people, which represents 92.9% of the population over 12 years old.

The campaign was launched on 27 December 2020 at the 'Los Olmos' Residence for the Elderly in Guadalajara. Araceli Rosario Hidalgo, a resident there since 2013, born in 1924, was the first person to receive the vaccine in Spain. At the same time, Mónica Tapias, born in 1972, an auxiliary nursing care technician (TCAE), was also vaccinated.

The Vaccination Strategy in Spain has been guided by prioritising the most vulnerable people. It started with residents and staff in nursing homes, frontline health and social care staff and large non-institutionalised dependants. It was subsequently extended to the rest of the population by age range.

Currently, the Vaccination Campaign for the Second Booster Dose against COVID-19 is currently underway, with vaccines adapted to the new variants in order to continue protecting the public.

This campaign began on 26 September and 72.6% of people over 80 years old and 54.9% of people over 60 years old have already received booster doses adapted to variants.

The Ministry of Health is calling for continued vaccination with second booster doses for the most vulnerable people in order to continue protecting ourselves and saving lives.

Challenge

The vaccination campaign in our country has been a real challenge for the National Health System (NHS), which has been recognised nationally and internationally as a great success.

Spain's leadership in vaccination has been made clear by milestones such as being the first country to vaccinate 100% of its population over the age of 80.

In addition, Spain has made 70 million doses available to third countries, placing it among the 10 countries in the world with the highest effective donation through the COVAX mechanism, to which a further 20 million doses adapted to COVID-19 variants will be added.

Non official translation