Valencia will continue Vaccination Plan with three existing vaccines on the market

Monday 15th March 2021 | translated by MIKE SMITH

The Department of Universal Health and Public Health at the Generalitat Valenciana will continue with its vaccination program using the three vaccines currently on the market: Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. Since the amount of vaccines available at this time allows its administration to the groups to which it is currently being administered, the doses of the AstraZeneca lot set aside in various European countries will not be used for the time being.

Public Health explained that there are enough doses of AstraZeneca to vaccinate the 116,032 education professionals without the need to use the vaccines from this additional batch, so they will remain in reserve.

However, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee of the European Medicines Agency has explained that there is no evidence that the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19 was the cause of the blood clotting that have seen precautionary measures adopted in some countries of the European Union.

Coagulation disorders, and, among them, clotting events, have not been established as a possible adverse reaction of this vaccine and are not listed as such in the SmPC of the medicine.

The Committee, of which the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) is a part, considers, therefore, that the benefits of the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks and can continue to be administered while the detailed evaluation of what happened is finalized.

This batch has been distributed in 17 EU countries, including Spain. As it has indicated in its previous communication and in line with the information recently reported by the European Medicines Agency, the AEMPS therefore considers that there are no reasons that justify the adoption of precautionary measures on the ABV5300 lot of the vaccine of AstraZeneca, so the vaccination plan for these units can be followed.

The head of the Vaccine Research Area of ​​Fisabio, Javier Díez, explained that, at this Thursday’s meeting of the Vaccine Safety Committee of the European Medicines Agency, “it was concluded that there was no scientific evidence to indicate that these cases of blood clotting are caused by the vaccine. ” In this way, Díez, has indicated that it is advisable to maintain vaccination programs with this vaccine. “The disease is much worse than a possible adverse effect”.

Health plans to administer 159,000 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 this week

This week, the Department of Universal Health and Public Health continues with the immunization campaign against COVID-19 in the Comunidad Valenciana, as foreseen by the vaccination strategy. This Monday begins the process for workers of the Home Help Service (SAD) and primary care of the social services of the Town Halls. In total, this week, it is planned to inoculate different groups 158,840 doses, more than double the previous week.

The vaccine will continue to be administered to people with severe disabilities, to those over 80 years of age and to health workers. Social service workers will also be vaccinated. A large part of these groups will receive the vaccine from the Pfizer laboratory, some 56,710 doses in total.

This week a total of 17,350 doses of Moderna have been destined for the vaccination of people aged 80 years and over; admitted patients over 80 years of age or large dependents in long-stay centres, and will continue with the immunization of public hospital health workers.

Finally, 84,780 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are planned for professionals in social services, correctional institutions employees and staff at educational centres.

As always, the allocation of vaccines has been carried out taking into account the need to guarantee the administration of the second doses within the deadlines established for each of the vaccines and the availability of supplies served by the laboratories.

Information Source
Press Release – Generalitat Valenciana