The Omicron variant is spreading at a worrying pace, particularly around Christmas , New Year and Three Kings when social life is expected to be noticeably boosted. There are more infections than ever, but, thankfully, hospitals are not at the levels of 2020, before the vaccination program had really got underway.
This new wave has caused additional restrictions over the holiday period, as a result of which almost 50 vaccination points have been opened for the next few weeks, with the return of the mandatory mask even in public spaces, although there are some exceptions to the rule announced by Prime Minister Sánchez.
In addition, the Ministry of Health is going to increase the rate of vaccinations during the holidays, just when the immunisation of children between 5 and 11 years of age has come to a halt, coinciding with the school holidays.
Over the next few days the Ministry of Health will send an SMS advising of a new vaccination appointment, for those still without a booster dose. The text message will be sent to three different groups and when the targeted groups are concluded, it will be extended to younger people.
The SMS with new booster appointments will first be sent to all those over 60 years of age, also to those whose immunisation was with the Janssen single-dose vaccine, as well as those people who have had the complete schedule of the the AstraZeneca vaccine, in this case, teachers and some other groups of essential workers.
Alternatively, some people in the groups outlined above will receive their new appointment by telephone call.
People in those groups are advised not to go to a mobile vaccination point without an appointment.
When this process concludes, those people who are under 60 years of age will be called, according to the information published by the Ministry of Health through their social networks last week.
The department says that it wants to reduce the inconvenience that this group would suffer if they had to go to immunisation points without an appointment, where the waits and queues would be much longer.
Vaccination for children from 10 January
After authorising the vaccination plan for those under 15 years of age, more than 104,000 children have already been immunized in educational centers across the Valencian Community. The Ministry of Health has also begun inoculating schoolchildren in special education centers, rural centers and fourth, fifth and sixth Primary.
According to the latest data provided by the Ministry, this means that seven out of ten Valencian children between 9 and 11 years old are already vaccinated. The remainder will receive their jabs on or after 10 January.
During the Christmas school holidays, vaccination for children have been stopped. They will be resumed after Three Kings with those children between 9 and 11 years old who have the authorisation of their parents or guardians to be vaccinated, but who could not receive the dose last week.
