95% of Valencian population has been immunized against COVID on first anniversary of vaccination campaign
The president of the Generalitat assures that all the studies show the efficacy of the vaccination that “has saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people”.
Tuesday 28th December 2021 – PRESS RELEASE with Mike Smith
The president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Ximo Puig, has reported that 94.53% of the Valencian population has received the complete vaccination against COVID-19, which means 4,242,773 people have been immunized on the first anniversary of the start of vaccination campaign in the Comunidad Valenciana.
He stated this after holding a meeting with experts from the Valencian COVID-19 Vaccine Research Program (ProVaVac), in which the regional health secretary, Ana Barceló, has also participated.
During the press conference after the meeting, the president claimed that all scientific studies show the effectiveness of vaccines against the coronavirus, “which have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.”
Likewise, he announced that the Valencian COVID-19 Vaccine Research Program has agreed to carry out three new studies on seroprevalence in the Comunidad Valenciana, 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 regional government 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 optimize their 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 of the new regional health ministry application for reading the COVID certificate this Monday that will facilitate compliance with this measure that, he noted, “is serving to increase vaccination” of the population that has not yet been immunized.
Revaccination to maintain protection
During his speech, Puig highlighted the need to get vaccinated again since, as he stated, “the third vaccination is decisive to maintain protection.” In this sense, he 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 4th month, falling to 36% in the case of Pfizer from the 8th 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 of the 70,000 that exist in the Comunidad in which it is shown that after the third dose and after 10 days “the contagion clearly declines.”
He explained that the objective of the Generalitat is that by the end of the year all those over 60 years of age will have received the third dose and that all education professionals also have the booster dose by January 10th. In addition, he indicated that in parallel the regional health ministry is calling up all the people vaccinated with Janssen and AstraZeneca, “so that the vaccination of essential professions and age groups will continue to be combined”.
Vaccination Assessment
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 explained that if all the needles used to administer the 9.4 million doses were lined up, they would stretch some 415 kilometres, the distance by car between Morella or Vinaroz and Pilar de la Horadada, and that the total volume of doses administered amounts to around 3,600 litres of vaccine.
For the president, this data demonstrates “the magnitude of the operation” that has taken place in the Comunidad Valenciana “thanks to health professionals and the joint responsibility of citizens”, which has meant reaching “record vaccination figures worldwide”.
Regarding the distribution of doses by laboratories, he reported that 6.6 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have been administered, 70.7% of the total; 1.5m 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%.
Of the total vaccines administered, 1,304,747 have been booster doses and have been administered to people over 60 years of age, immunized 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 highlighted that a total of 105,898 boys and girls, 70% of the population of this age, has already received their first dose of the vaccine between December 15th and 22nd.
