The Ministry of Health in Spain hopes to deliver more than 20 million doses to other countries
Spain’s Health Minister, Carolina Darias, has reaffirmed the country’s commitment to the Covax initiative, a scheme developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Team Europe to ensure that poorer countries have equal access to the coronavirus vaccines.
Darias announced on Monday September 6 that Spain would be donating 22.5 million vaccines to different countries through Covax, some of which have only reached a 2 per cent vaccination rate, and she insisted that ‘we need to act’ to ensure that rich countries contribute to improving the vaccination coverage of others.
The sale of vaccines is regulated by agreements between the European Commission and pharmaceutical companies, and up until now Spain would have only distributed doses within the EU. The Ministry has assured that the vaccines are sold at the same price they were bought for – around 1.20 euros per AstraZeneca dose – as there is no intention to make a profit from the resale. For now, Spain is only shipping this particular vaccine outside of Europe, but has indicated that in the future it may be in a position to also deliver doses of Pfizer and Moderna.
To date, Spain has received 10.2 million doses of AstraZeneca and has administered 9.7 million. According to the contract signed with the pharmaceutical company, a further two million vaccines are due to arrive by the third quarter of this year, which will create an even larger surplus.
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Source: Murcia Today
