Spain to start inoculations amid surging COVID-19 cases

Spain is about to kick off its vaccination campaign against COVID-19, the country's health ministry said, reported Xinhua.

"We do not want to wait a single day, we want the vaccination process to begin as soon as possible," Spanish Health Minister Salvador Illa told a press conference on Friday.

The first doses of the BioNTech Pfizer vaccine will arrive in Spain on Dec. 26 and inoculations will start the following day, he said.

The minister said that each of Spain's 17 regions would receive a fair share of the vaccine, depending on its population and the number of people belonging to priority groups.

The vaccination campaign will be divided into three phases and Spaniards will receive inoculations in order of necessity, the minister said, adding that by May and June, hopefully around 20 million citizens will have been immunized.

Illa did not say how many doses Spain will receive because the vaccine is still pending confirmation by the European Commission as well as approval by the European Medicines Agency, to be finalized next Monday.

Spain on Friday reported 11,815 new cases and 149 new deaths from COVID-19, taking the total caseload to 1,797,236 and death toll to 48,926, its health ministry said.

The surging caseload has prompted regions across Spain to impose tougher anti-pandemic restrictions over the Christmas period.