Johnson & Johnson began to distribute its vaccine in Europe: Spain will apply it in the age group between 70 and 79 years

The pharmaceutical Janssen, part of the Johnson & Johnson conglomerate, On Monday began deliveries to all European Union countries of its one-dose vaccine against COVID-19. They are expected to be distributed 55 million of doses to the 27 members of the bloc between April and June, confirmed the European Commission.

”Good news, delivery of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine began today throughout the European Union. This will help accelerate access to vaccines for citizens and ensure that we achieve our goal of vaccinating a 70% of the adult population for the summer”, Wrote on Twitter the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides.

In the case of Spain the first 300,000 vaccines will be administered in the age group between 70 and 79 years of age. This is because the country is currently using the Pfizer formula in those over 80 and that of AstraZeneca only in those under 65 (due to a series of alerts about possible cases of blood clots developed as a side effect), leaving a band unattended. In total, Spain expects to receive some five million doses (unlike other vaccines, only one is needed) from Janssen in the first half of 2021.

The European Commission is optimistic about the arrival of the Janssen vaccines, which in this way adds a new inoculant to the three that are already being applied: Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca. After a slow start to the vaccination campaigns in the block – largely due to the supply problems of the AstraZeneca vaccine and subsequent doubts about its safety due to its link with cases of thrombosis – many countries have registered in the first days of April record vaccine administration data.

The four companies have committed to providing some 360 million doses between April and June, a calculation that already takes into account that AstraZeneca has announced that it will not comply with the agreement in its contract with Brussels and will deliver 70 million doses instead of 180. Johnson & Johnson committed to send another 120 million doses during the third quarter of the year.

According to an internal calculation of the European Union, Spain could have the doses (between Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson) to vaccinate more than 27 million people, 57.41% of the population, by the end of June , counting on all pharmaceutical companies to comply with the vaccine deliveries stipulated in their contracts. The estimate is more optimistic than the one presented last week by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, who had estimated that Spain will have 25 million immunized people by July 19 after the Council of Ministers meeting.

Some smaller countries estimate that they will have enough doses to cover larger percentages of their populations: Malta expects to have 93.1% of its population vaccinated by the end of June and Denmark with 79.88%, thus exceeding the average rate of its European partners. On the other side of the list, four would fall below half of the vaccinated population by the end of the first half of the year: Czech Republic, 44.67%, Slovakia, 45.58%, Bulgaria, 45.21% and Croatia, 45.28%.

As of April 11, 15.34 percent of the inhabitants of the European Union received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The speed of the campaign at the supranational level has increased in recent days: according to the specialized site Our World in DataOn April 5, inoculants were applied to 0.35 percent of the population, while that number rose to 0.46 by the end of the week.