The Catalan Health Minister , Josep María Argimon, has announced that the large vaccination centers, the so-called ‘vacunodromes’, such as the Fira de Barcelona or Girona , will soon be withdrawn , because, with almost 70% of the population vaccinated , mass vaccination centers “are making less and less sense” and now the delivery of doses has to be done with “microsurgical strategies”. In addition, according to Argimon, by normalizing life “little by little”, the spaces occupied by the large vaccination centers “also have to normalize their uses . “
According to Health data, 69.8% of the entire population of Catalonia already has the complete vaccination schedule, a figure that increases to 79.9% if only those over 16 are counted, while following the slow pace of appointments to get vaccinated.
The Fira de Barcelona opens as the largest vaccination center in Catalonia
To increase vaccination among young people, the Department of Health will open vaccination points without prior appointment in all Catalan universities starting next Monday, as it did at the UAB on Wednesday, one of the formulas chosen to encourage young people get the covid vaccine. These vaccination centers will be open for about three weeks and will be to put first doses of Pfizer and Moderna.
Walk-in mobile points
The Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council have also agreed to install mobile vaccination points without prior appointment to give the Janssen single-dose vaccine in neighborhoods where less coverage has been detected, which coincide with those with the lowest income per capita.
The manager of the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB), Carme Borrell, has pointed out that now increasing the percentages of vaccinated is increasingly difficult and a more selective strategy is needed, such as mobile vaccination points aimed at groups of people that it is more difficult to reach.
That the fifth wave is over is underscored by the fact that the risk of regrowth (EPG), an indicator that measures the potential growth of the epidemic, has dropped in Catalonia from the high to moderate risk threshold, with less than 100 points for the first time since 17 June, although there is still an average of eleven daily deaths from covid.
Euskadi and the Balearic Islands also close
The Basque Health Service-Osakidetza will close the vaccination fields on September 30, having fully immunized 84% of the population of the Basque Country over 12 years of age.
In addition, the Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, has called for next Friday the 17th a meeting of the advisory council of the Basque Civil Protection Plan to review the health measures against the pandemic and if the indicators maintain their current positive evolution, he will relax the restrictions related to schedules and capacity.
And the Balearic Islands will also close most mass vaccination points throughout this month, leaving Son Dureta in Palma available for vaccination without an appointment, and will focus the campaign on health centers. With this change, the transferred facilities can be returned to the town halls, which now that the school year begins will return to their normal functions.
The Son Espases Hospital, the largest in Palma, closed its mass vaccination lines this Wednesday; On September 15, the collaboration with the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Polyclinic in Ibiza and mass vaccination at the Hospital de Formentera will end; and on September 22, the ‘vacunadromes’ of the Mateu Cañellas Sports Center (Inca) and the Manacor Racecourse will close.
