Care home residents in Catalonia start to receive third booster jab

Care home residents in Catalonia have started to receive their third Covid booster jabs.

Care home residents in Catalonia have today, Saturday, September 18, begun to receive their Covid-19 booster shots just days after Spain approved the administration of these third doses over fears of their waning immunity against the virus.

After some confusion regarding when this would begin – initial reports stated booster shots would be administered from October 4 while others said they would next week – Catalonia’s health authorities ultimately decided to start doing so on Friday.

The first people to get their third Covid-19 vaccine doses were the residents of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat’s Feixa Llarga care home – the same place where the vaccination campaign kicked off last winter. On December 27, 2020, octogenarian Josefa Pérez became the first person in Catalonia to receive a dose before becoming the first nursing home resident to get a booster shot on September 17.

Catalonia’s vaccine rollout continues to progress, albeit at a much slower rate than before the summer. As of September 16, 5,835,260 (70.9% of the population) is considered to be fully immunised – barely over 1% more than exactly a week ago – and health authorities say they have plenty of leftover doses that they could be administering.

5,835,260 residents have been given the first dose of the vaccine, 73.7% of the total population. Out of those, 4,943,232 have also been administered a second dose (62.6% of the total population). 

Booster shots for immunocompromised people

Spain greenlighted third doses for immunocompromised people just over a week ago, meaning that organ transplant recipients or those who have received hematopoietic stem cells due to diseases such as leukaemia, or people who are being treated with anti-CD20 medicines have been able to begin receiving booster shots.

MRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer or Moderna, will be used for all three sets of patients.

Third jabs will be administered 28 days after second doses, however, patients will still have to wait six months after finishing their treatment before they can get them.

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