Spain blames EU for dwindling COVID-19 vaccine supplies - newspaper

With stocks dwindling and new infections near record levels, supplies across the country are threatened, and authorities in the capital and the northern region of Cantabria have stopped vaccinating new people to focus on administering second shots to those who have already received a first one. In a draft agenda for a summit of regional health chiefs, the central government made clear it blamed Brussels for the problems, El Mundo reported.

Spain's health ministry is blaming the European Union for delays in COVID-19 vaccine deliveries that have forced the Madrid region to halt new inoculations, El Mundo newspaper quoted a leaked official document as saying. With stocks dwindling and new infections near record levels, supplies across the country are threatened, and authorities in the capital and the northern region of Cantabria have stopped vaccinating new people to focus on administering second shots to those who have already received a first one.

In a draft agenda for a summit of regional health chiefs, the central government made clear it blamed Brussels for the problems, El Mundo reported. "It is the European Union that negotiates and signs the contracts, that is in charge of tracking them and making sure they are correctly fulfilled," it quoted the government as saying in the document.

Spain's health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The EU's vaccination programme, already lagging behind Britain, Israel and the United States, has hit further snags in the past week as pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and AstraZeneca announced delays to deliveries.

The supply crunch is being felt in many parts of Spain. At Sant Pau hospital in Barcelona, on the Mediterranean coast, retired nurses have been volunteering to help vaccinate health workers but are now focusing solely on second doses. "We've had to bring down the speed of vaccinating ... (people)," the hospital's head of occupational health, Dr Rafael Padros Selma, said.

He hoped a new shipment due on Feb. 15 would allow the vaccination programme to regain momentum. Data released on Wednesday showed Spain had administered some 1.4 million doses, about 78% of its current stocks.

An official poll released by the Centre for Sociological Studies (CIS) showed the number of Spaniards willing to receive a shot as soon as it becomes available has risen to nearly 73% from around 40% a month ago. After diagnosing more than 740,000 cases during a record surge in the past month, Spain's cumulative infections now total more than 2.7 million and the death toll has passed 57,000.

World Heath Organization senior emergency officer Catherine Smallwood said new cases had begun to level off in Spain. "We hope that that will translate into a gradual decline in coming weeks," she told a news conference.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)