The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, was blunt in assessing the situation in the last meeting between specialists on the subject.
“Within the uncertainty of this damn pandemic there are some things that give certainty: that vaccines protect, save lives, but also that over time, by losing effectiveness and immunity, the booster dose works,” he said.
In that sense, he stressed that the high vaccination coverage in Spain, which covers more than 90 percent of citizens and is now focused on groups of children between five and 11 years old, is in any case a peace of mind.
However, he argued that given the escalation of coronavirus cases on the threshold of the Christmas holidays, not everything has to be left to vaccination and must be accompanied by self-protection measures.
Darias was categorical in pointing out that the formula is known: “vaccinate, vaccinate and vaccinate and prevent, prevent and prevent, whatever the variant or the letter of the Greek alphabet: masks, social distance, maximize ventilation.”
The owner and several experts agreed that the effectiveness of vaccines against the severe results caused by the Delta variant remains high, which is why it also serves to face the impact of Ómicron.
Likewise, numerous Autonomous Communities are currently exerting pressure to convince skeptics to end up being vaccinated to minimize the expansion of Ómicron as much as possible, with calculations that are still unpredictable.
The Interterritorial Committee that assesses the presence of Covid-19 in the Iberian nation every week considered “urgent that energetic measures be taken to reduce transmission and alleviate the heavy burden on health systems and protect the most vulnerable in the coming months ».
The day before, the Government of Spain announced that it will extend until December 29 the entry restrictions to the national territory of nine southern African countries.
The measure, in force for several weeks, was established to neutralize the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, something that, however, has not been fully achieved.
The Official State Gazette reported that restrictions on flights from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia with Spanish airports remain.
The renewal of the measures begins at 00:00, local time, this Thursday and will remain in effect until midnight on December 29, when it may be eliminated or extended depending on the circumstances.
jf / ft
