Catalonia to administer Pfizer as second dose to essential groups unless AstraZenenca requested

The Catalan public health service will begin administering second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to essential groups on Thursday, with the Pfizer vaccine as the default unless a person specifically asks for AstraZeneca when registering.

Anyone under the age of 60 who has already received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine can now book an appointment at vacunacovid.catsalut.gencat.cat.

Those who want their second jab, like their first, to be AstraZeneca must sign a consent form.

There are a total of 240,042 people in Catalonia under the age of 60 who have received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and are waiting to receive their second vaccination.

The plan to use two different vaccines only affects those under 60 who belong to essential groups and who received the first dose of AstraZeneca some weeks ago.

Those over 60 who have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca will receive their second dose from that same manufacturer as normal.

Consent forms will be available at vaccination centers on the day of the appointment, or can be downloaded in advance from canalsalut.gencat.cat/ca/inici.

Criticism from scientists

Spain first announced last Tuesday it would administer the Pfizer vaccine as the second dose for those under 60s who had been given AstraZeneca as their first jab.

Following criticism from scientists, in a subsequent meeting on Wednesday, the Spanish government and regional authorities proposed letting people decide whether to get the Pfizer jab or a second AstraZeneca dose.

On Friday authorities confirmed that anyone under the age of 60 who wishes to receive a second AstraZeneca dose will be allowed to do so as long as they sign an informed consent form.

Vaccine rollout

As of May 24, 2021, 2,716,180 residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine, 34.7% of the total population. Out of those, 1,117,978 have also been administered the second dose (15.0% of the total population). 1,259,011 residents are considered to be fully immunized (16.1%). Those under 65s who have already had the virus are only required to have the first dose, and others have received a single-dose jab. Therefore, the % of two doses administered and % fully immunized do not match.