The president of the Valencia Region, Ximo Puig, has highlighted that 94.53% of the Valencian population has already received the complete vaccination schedule, which means having immunised 4,242,773 people, with the first anniversary of the start of vaccination against COVID-19 in the Valencian Community.
This was stated after holding a meeting with experts from the Valencian COVID-19 Vaccine Research Program (ProVaVac), in which the Minister of Universal Health and Public Health, Ana Barceló, has also participated.
During the press conference after the meeting, the president assured that all scientific studies show the effectiveness of vaccines against the coronavirus, “which have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.”
Likewise, it has announced that the Valencian COVID-19 Vaccine Research Program has agreed to carry out three new studies on seroprevalence in the Valencian Community, the chronic impact of the infection and on the duration of the efficacy of the vaccine in the child population to be able to decide when a new dose would be necessary.
Specifically, the head of the Consell has referred to the need to study the chronic impact of the infection in order to be able to develop care strategies to reduce the loss of permanent chronic health and optimise well-being.
The president has also announced the change of name of the General Hospital of Alicante to be renamed Doctor Balmis-General Hospital of Alicante in order to “symbolically signify the value of vaccines to overcome the pandemic,” he explained.
In addition, he has valued the launch this Monday of the new application of the Ministry of Health on the COVID certificate that will facilitate compliance with this measure that, as indicated, “is serving to increase vaccination” of the population that has not yet she had been immunised.
Revaccination to maintain protection
During his speech, he highlighted the need to get vaccinated again since, as he stated, “the third vaccination is decisive to maintain protection.” In this sense, it has pointed out that all the studies carried out guarantee the efficacy of vaccination in the same way that they reflect a gradual decrease in its effectiveness from the fourth month, falling to 36% in the case of Pfizer from the eighth month.
The president explained that a study is being carried out on the protection generated by the vaccine against contagion with a group of 9,000 health workers out of the 70,000 that exist in the Valencian Community in which it is shown that after the third dose and after 10 days “the contagion clearly declines.”
As he has indicated, the objective of the Generalitat is that by the end of the year all those over 60 years of age have received the third dose and that before January 10 all education professionals also have the booster dose. In addition, he pointed out that in parallel the Ministry of Health is citing all the people vaccinated with Janssen and AstraZeneca, “so the vaccination of essential professions and age cohorts will continue to be combined”, he stated.
Vaccination balance
During the event, the president took stock of the first year of vaccination in which a total of 9,433,334 doses have been administered, of which 3,462,071 in the province of Alicante, 1,115,540 in Castellón and 4,855. 723 in Valencia.
He has also ensured that if all the needles used to administer the 9.4 million doses were lined up, they would reach 415 kilometres, the distance by car between Morella or Vinaroz and Pilar de la Horadada, and that the total volume of administered doses amounts to 3,600 litres of vaccine approximately.
For the president, these data demonstrate “the magnitude of the operation” that has taken place in the Valencian Community “thanks to health professionals and the joint responsibility of citizens”, which has meant reaching “record vaccination figures around the world “.
Regarding the distribution of doses by laboratories, it has been pointed out that 6.6 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have been administered, that is, 70.7% of the total; 1.5 from Moderna-Lonza, representing 16.3% of the total; one million AstraZeneca, representing 10.6%, and more than 221,000 doses of Janssen, or 2.4%.
It should be noted that of the total vaccines, 1,304,747 have been booster doses and have been administered to people over 60 years of age, immunised with Janssen, people at risk or essential services.
Finally, regarding the vaccination of minors between 9 and 11 years old that is being carried out in schools, the president has highlighted that a total of 105,898 boys and girls, that is, 70% of the population of this age , has already received between December 15 and 22 the first paediatric dose.
