Araceli, 96, is the first person to receive the vaccine in the Spanish State

Madrid"Let's see if we can make this virus go away. The important thing is that everyone's okay". With this message, Araceli Rosario Hidalgo Sanchez, 96, has become the first person in the state to receive the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus. It was at the public care home Los Olmos in Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha), the city where the first 9,750 doses purchased jointly with the European Union arrived yesterday, Saturday.

"I hope we can vaccinate the whole population", Araceli predicted after receiving the first dose from the hands of a health worker. More than the jab, what has made her nervous has been the media attention, but as Mónica Tapias -auxiliary nurse care technician for ten years in this home, and from today on the first social health care worker vaccinated in the state- said, they done so to set an example and "encourage most people" to get it, because "many people have died".

The Ministry of Health has already warned that there will surely be side effects, but has included them within the norm, emphasizing that many older people who may have complications or even die from other pathologies unrelated to the vaccine will receive the vaccine. Both Araceli and Mónica, who is also the youngest worker in the care home, have been waiting for fifteen minutes after receiving the vaccine to see if they had an adverse reaction but have not noticed anything special. "I didn't feel anything, now we'll see how it goes", the proud ninety year old who is part of a historic moment in Europe said.

ARANWS20201225_0147This is how Comirnaty, the vaccine against covid that is administered in Catalonia, works

Health Minister Salvador Illa: "Vaccination is the beginning of the end, which will be full immunization"

Pfizer has received the endorsement of the European Medicines Agency this week so that it can start a massive campaign that started simultaneously across the European Union this Sunday. For the Spanish government it means seeing "the light at the end of the tunnel" or "the beginning of the end, total immunization", as the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, said on Sunday in a press conference from Barcelona. Nevertheless, there will still be months of great uncertainty.

Firstly, the minister recalled that Araceli and Mónica will not be fully immunized until 28 days from now, one week after receiving the second dose of Pfizer. And secondly, Illa has shown "concern" because the cumulative incidence and EPG rates have not stopped increasing in many communities since the December bank holiday, and it is still unknown how the long bank holiday of Christmas and Boxing day affects these rates.

As for the first cases detected of the British variant in the Community of Madrid, Illa has pointed out that they are "evaluating" them with the health authorities and has stressed that, in all cases, they were people who entered Spain by plane with a negative PCR test - a way of responding to the criticism of the President of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso. However, he did not comment on whether additional measures should be taken and stressed that these were "mild" cases.

The Pfizer doses arrived yesterday with a truck from Germany to this city of Castilla-La Mancha, which was used as a base to distribute them in all the autonomous regions, in order to start the vaccination simultaneously this Sunday. From now on, Spain is expected to receive a shipment of 350,000 doses per week, in accordance with the distribution per population made by the European Union. The Health Ministry's forecast is that in twelve weeks the immunisation of 2.29 million people will be completed.

In Catalonia, the first vaccine has been administered in the Feixa Larga de l'Hospitalet residence, which has no cases of covid. This weekend the Generalitat has received 1,595 doses. The vaccine of Pfizer has been baptized as Comirnaty: it needs to be kept frozen at -70 degrees centigrade, but the doses that will be distributed weekly have a life of five days in a refrigerator, which does not require a great infrastructure in health centers, if they are administered as planned.