The weekly shipment of 5,850 Pfizer vaccines which the Ministry of Health was due to have delivered to the Balearics on Tuesday finally arrived by sea yesterday, which means that the islands have now received a total of 19,290 doses of which the local government has administered 8,420, 43.6% - still one of the lowest rates in the country.
After the Minister of Health, Patricia Gómez, complained on Wednesday about the delay in the arrival of vaccines to the islands, a ferry from Valencia to Palma via Ibiza brought the new shipment at dawn.
In Ibiza 950 doses were delivered, another 3,800 have been stored in Mallorca and 950 were shipped to Minorca, to continue with the vaccination process, which is first being administered to the most exposed health workers - 1,476 were vaccinated on Wednesday - the first day of the mass roll out. The first phase of the vaccination programme targeted nursing home residents and staff. This has apparently been completed and according to data provided by the Ministry of Health, 3,900 care home residents and 3,044 professionals have been vaccinated.
To date, the Balearic Islands has 10,870 doses, including 6,944 reserved for the second dose for the elderly in nursing homes and their carers, and another 600 of the Moderna vaccine, the first batch of which arrived on Wednesday.
This means that, until the arrival of any further consignments, there are 3,926 doses of vaccines against covid-19 ready to be administered to the 7,337 health professionals considered “front line workers” both in the public and private health sectors.
On Wednesday 20% of them were vaccinated: 1,058 in Majorca, 239 in Minorca and 179 in Ibiza. They are professionals who work in the emergency services, radiology, pulmonology, microbiology, internal medicine, ICU, laboratories and emergency transport.
The Ministry of Health plans to complete the administration of the vaccination with the first dose to these health workers within about two weeks and to start the administration of the second dose to residents and employees of nursing homes at the end of this week.
“Once the administration of the first dose to the group of professionals with the highest risk is finished, the rest of the professionals will follow. Approximately 30,000 people will be called to be vaccinated,” the Balearic Ministry for Health said.
It also pointed out that “the primary care vaccination teams will continue to vaccinate residents and professionals of care homes and care centres for people with disabilities and those homes that have not been able to be vaccinated due to an outbreak.”