Spain due to start virus vaccination programme on December 27th

Spain will start immunising people against the coronavirus on December 27, a day after it receives
the first doses of a vaccine, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Friday.

The announcement comes a day after European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen
announced the EU would begin inoculations against Covid-19 with the Pfizer vaccine between
December 27th and 29th, saying it was "Europe's moment" in the battle against the virus.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to decide whether or not to approve the Pfizer
vaccine on December 21 -- a week earlier than initially expected.

"This is the beginning of the end of the pandemic, not the end, so we must continue to keep our
guard up," Illa told a news conference.

Spain plans to vaccinate elderly residents and staff in nursing homes first, then health workers and
other vulnerable people such as the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.

The government expects to have around 15-20 million people out of its population of 47 million
vaccinated against the virus by June.

The health minister called on Spaniards to be very careful over the Christmas holidays, warning
there had been a "very worrying" change in infection trends, with a rise in cases after several
weeks of declines. "We must adopt adequate measures to change this trend," he added.

Several regional governments, which are responsible for health care, have in recent days
announced tighter virus restrictions for the holidays to try to curb the rise in infections.

Spain has been one of Europe's worst-hit countries, with the virus infecting more than 1.7 million
people and causing nearly 49,000 deaths.

More than half of Spaniards will not be willing to get COVID-19 vaccination as soon as they are
available, according to the results of a new survey, reports Reuters.

There are now a few different vaccines which have been proved successful against Covid-19 during
testing, but one of the biggest hurdles for governments will be to convince enough of their citizens
to get one, so that herd immunity can take place.

Even in Spain, where vaccination rates are typically high, this may prove to be difficult, as shown
by the official survey by the Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS).

The results showed that just a third of the population would be ready to take the Covid-19 vaccine
immediately, while 55.2 percent of them would want to wait and see what the potential side
effects could be first. The poll was carried out between November 23 and 26 on 2,130 people.

However, out of the 55.2 percent of people who would rather wait, almost 60 percent said that
they would change their mind if their doctor recommended them to take it because they were at
risk or were putting their family members at risk.