A healthcare worker attends to a COVID-19 coronavirus patient at the Intensive Unit Care of the Povisa Hospital in Vigo, northwestern Spain, on April 16, 2020. AFP / MIGUEL RIOPA
Spain expects to vaccinate up to 20 million people against the coronavirus by June, joining a growing group of countries that can finally put dates on giving shots to stem the pandemic.
Elderly people in nursery houses and their staff, followed by health workers, will be vaccinated in the first phase of about 2.5 million people, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Friday. The country’s population is about 47 million.
The news coincided with a government poll that showed 55% of 2,131 respondents would would prefer to wait until the health effects of the shot are better known before taking it, while 8.4% said they wouldn’t under any condition. Of those groups, however, 60% would agree if their doctor urged it.
Spain will get vaccines produced by the six companies that signed a contract with the European Union, Sanchez said.
