A mass vaccination program is now underway across much of Spain for 12 to 16 year old’s. In the Alicante Province the two main centres, IFA Alicante and Ciudad de la Luz both reported an excellent uptake.

Few travelled to the centres alone with most children choosing to take along a member of their family or an older sibling.

“We are struck by the fact that they come in the company of their parents, siblings … the families are excited about the vaccinations and no one wants to miss it,” according to Manoli Ibarra, director of Primary Care Nursing in the department of the General Hospital of Elche.

There seems little doubt that during this coming week the record numbers of inoculations that we have previously seen will be broken, with at least 30,500 expected to attend.

If their relatives are added to this number, more places will have had to be set up for people to queue without crowds and with the chairs needed to rest following the jab, so that everyone can spend 15 minutes sitting down while they recover.

The data collection desks have also been increased, “because we ask all parents to sign the authorisation.”

This week 291,989 young people from the area have been summoned throughout the Valencian Community and a total of half a million vaccines against the coronavirus are going to be used, the second highest figure since last December.