'Get vaccinated,' says Spain’s president and calls for leaders’ meeting

Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, said in a statement during a visit to Barcelona on Sunday morning that citizens need to "get vaccinated," as the new wave of Covid-19 looms over the festive season. Sánchez also called for an urgent meeting with the various presidents of all the territories in Spain.

The meeting, which will be held virtually on Wednesday afternoon, will serve to study "common measures" throughout the country that are expected to come into effect in the upcoming weeks.

The 14-day notification rate of newly reported Covid-19 cases per 100 000 population in Spain is currently 511 cases, it is not as high as other countries, said Sánchez, but "it represents a real risk for the health" of citizens and "requires more intense actions."

During his speech, he recognized that Spain’s vaccination rate is higher than other countries. Comparing to last year, when jabs were only available from December 27, 2020, Sánchez explained that vaccines work as hospitalized cases are far lower than one year ago.

On Wednesday, December 15, children aged 5 to 11 started receiving their Covid-19 vaccine, meaning that everyone in Spain above 5 years, can get a jab. In fact, in only three days, 5% of this group received a shot in the country, a similar figure in Catalonia (4%).

Currently, as of December 18, 2021, 6,169,991 Catalan residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine, 77.9% of the total population. Out of those, 5,380,627 have also been administered a second dose (68% of the total population). 6,024,782 residents are considered to be fully immunized (75.8%).

Spanish president sent a message of hope to Spaniards just days before the Christmas holidays starts with thousands of new Covid cases registered every day.