Catalonia will administer a third dose to everyone vaccinated with AstraZeneca.

Catalonia Vaccination starts today third dose to the entire population already immunized two doses of AstraZeneca. These people need to make an appointment at vaccinecovid.catsalut.gencat.cat.

Until now, the third dose has only been given to those over 60 years of age, but since the Omicron variant eludes the two doses of AstraZeneca, the Ministry of Health announced this Monday that it will introduce a booster dose. anyone who has already been immunized with this drug for more than three months.

“The omicron variant will be dominant next week or the week after,” the health minister warned. Carmen Cabezas, who warned that unvaccinated over-70s were six times more likely to be admitted to hospital and 19 times more likely to be admitted to intensive care than those vaccinated.

The Health Minister warned that the epidemiological situation is worrying, with “a significant increase in the number of cases”, especially in those under 70 years of age. “In the group of people who have good coverage with the third dose, the incidence slows down more,” – Cabezas emphasized.

The healthcare system is now entering a second phase of mitigation due to “great pressure on healthcare” in primary care. Actually, visits to the DAC

Compared to the previous week, they increased by 85%. And all this affects hospitals: in Catalonia there are already 1280 patients with covid-19 in a regular plant and about 310 in UCIS.

“The largest number of hospitalizations occur in people over 50 years old” said Cabezas, who also clarified that last year at this time there were more people in intensive care units. “But last year Covid was one disease and now it coexists with other diseases.

Catalonia is now forcing all people in close contact with the virus to quarantine, regardless of whether they are vaccinated or not. With two exceptions: people living in residential buildings

where vaccination coverage is 85%, and also in medical workers if they are asymptomatic and tests are negative. In addition, Salyut is stopping testing close contacts without symptoms and directly asking them to self-isolate.