Catalonia begins to vaccinate 45 to 49-year-olds

Yet another milestone has been reached in Catalonia's Covid-19 vaccination program as 45- to 49-year-olds began to receive their first doses on Monday.

It comes just 24 hours after official figures revealed that over three million people in Catalonia have now had at least one vaccine dose, equivalent to 38.5% of the country's 7.8 million inhabitants.

The call for people born between 1972 and 1976 to make an appointment went out just last week – the quick turnaround between call and delivery bodes well for the government's bid for the inoculation campaign to be open for all people in their 40s by mid-June.

In fact, some people in their forties were able to receive a jab last week, ahead of Monday's mass rollout.

One of the vaccination points in the Fira de Barcelona exhibition center, where 6,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna are expected to be administered throughout the day, to people aged 45 to 49 and from other age groups.

The number of daily doses will increase during the week and reach 9,000 on Thursday, according to Mònica Vázquez, who's in charge of citizen care at the Fira de Barcelona vaccination site.

According to Catalonia's statistics agency Idescat, there are 649,531 people aged 40 to 49 in Catalonia (provisional data as of January 1 this year). The Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine has also been approved for this age group.

Praise for nurses

Mònica and Núria, two citizens who received their first vaccine dose were full of praise for staff at the vaccination point.

"They are amazing, good-humored and impressive skills," Mònica, 46, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN).

"I was calm when I arrived, but I got a little nervous in the queue. But inside they treated me very well and the jab, I didn't even notice," said 49-year-old Núria.

All in all, it has been a positive few days in Catalonia's fight against the pandemic and transition to normality, with the Covid-19 outbreak risk indicator below the 'high' threshold for first time in 11 months and vaccinated tourists now allowed to visit.

You can listen below to Catalan News' visit to the Fira de Barcelona vaccination site in episode 27 of the Filling the Sink podcast from last month.