Dilip Kuner
A 96-year-old woman has become the first person in Spain to be given a COVID-19 vaccination.
Araceli is the oldest resident of the Los Olmos nursing home in the Madrid town of Guadalajara and she was chosen to get the first shot this morning (Sunday, December 27).
She said she hardly felt the injection, adding: “Let’s see if everyone behaves well and we can make this virus go away.”
A few minutes later Monica – an assistant at the same home – became the second person in Spain to get the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.
Monica said: “We want the majority of people to get vaccinated.A lot of people have died and it is a shame that more people haven’t made it long enough to get vaccinated.”
She added that the event was tinged with sadness taht a vaccine had not been available sooner, saying the home had lost several residents to the virus. “They died without the warmth of their family, and it was sad. Let’s see if we can bring an end to this soon.”
Nearly 50,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Spain in less than a year, according to Spanish Health Ministry data.
The plan is to target residents and workers at nursing homes as well as vulnerable people and frontline health workers for the first phase of vaccinations.
Enough vaccines for 2.3 million people is expected to arrive within the next three months. Spain has ordered enough vaccines to treat 80 million people through various different companies.
