Last Thursday, the Spanish Public Health Commission approved the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for people who are more vulnerable to the disease, that is, people over 80 years of age. However, Carolina Darias, Minister of Health, has declared that there will finally be a fourth dose for the entire population.
These statements by the minister were made in a connection made live on the program Al Rojo Vivo (La Sexta) and in response to the question of whether there will be a fourth dose for the entire population, an injection that would become the second dose of reinforcement for the general population.
The minister has been forceful: “there will be a fourth dose for the entire population, as the Public Health Commission has already decided. Now what remains to be decided is when. Probably a date that can be considered as possible is around the fall. Therefore, from October they could be available in the Health System.
Fourth dose with variant-adapted vaccines
As he continued to explain, the date could be determined by the arrival of new shipments of vaccines to Spain, drugs that have been adapted to the variants of SARS-CoV-2 that are circulating, especially that of ómicron. Darias went on to explain that the arrival of these new vaccines “is in the contracts that we have signed from the Government of Spain through the European Union with pharmaceutical companies.”
Last week the minister already released some information regarding this fourth dose of the vaccine, indicating that “experts believe, and the Public Health Commission also, that, although it will be necessary to administer a second booster dose, and all points out that yes, the most appropriate time should be established according to the epidemiological situation, and it is highly likely that it will be later with the arrival of new vaccines adapted to variants”.
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