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CONFIRMED: Spain approves Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine for under 50s

The Local Spain
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CONFIRMED: Spain approves Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine for under 50s
A placard reads "Today we administer Janssen" at a vaccination centre at the Wizink Center in Madrid on May 21, 2021. (Photo by PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

Spain’s Health Ministry on Tuesday approved the use of the J&J inoculation for people in their forties and announced which other vaccines will be made available to those in the 40 to 49 age group.

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The Spanish government had initially announced that for people aged 40 to 49 years (born between 1972 and 1981, both those years included), “the vaccines used will be considered based on the availability, the context of the pandemic and the evidence”. 

On June 1st, following two weeks of negotiations with the regions and Spain’s Public Health Commission, they confirmed that only the vaccines developed with the ARN messenger - Pzifer, Moderna and now Johson & Johnson - will be the ones administered to this age group.

Around 3.7 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines are expected to arrive in Spain over the course of June, compared to 13 million doses of the two-dose Pfizer inoculation.

Known as la vacuna Janssen, Spain began using this vaccine with its 70 to 79 age group and on May 12th extended its use to people aged 50 to 59 and those classified as vulnerable due to health and other conditions (all ages).

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“Since this vaccine only requires one dose, it has important advantages for its use from the point of view of feasibility and efficiency of health resources for certain groups that are difficult to reach and vaccinate, either because they’re not in the health system (for example, homeless people), or due to the need to send healthcare personnel to private homes, or because they are groups that can’t go the health centre due to other reasons (certain work activities, such as workers at sea, NGO workers who travel to high-risk areas), ” Spanish health ministry sources explained.

The nearly 8 million people in Spain who are aged 40 to 49 will be vaccinated “once the vaccination campaign of over fifties is completed”. So far 59.9 percent of people aged 50 to 59 have received at least one dose of the vaccine in Spain.

Some regions such as Murcia, Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha and the Canary Islands have already started contacting people in the 40 to 49 age group to receive their vaccination.

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