The SCS is ready to give third dose to 230,000 people over 70 in the Canary Islands

The Canary Islands public health service (SCS) now has all the logistics in place to start administering the third dose of Covid vaccines to 230,000 people over 70 years of age starting next Thursday, the day on which the immunization campaign against flu also begins. The objective is that this age group will be injected against both diseases on the same day.

So far, the Canary Islands have administered the booster dose against Covid to 6,200 residents and users of social health centres, and 6,390 of the 11,000 immune-suppressed patients in their first target sector of the population.

The inoculation of the third dose to those over 70 years of age to strengthen their immunity against coronavirus, will go hand in hand with vaccination against influenza and is expected to be completed in December, says Begoña Reyero, coordinator of the vaccination plan against Covid in Canary Islands.

These people will be injected both in their local health centres and in the mass vaccination centres that are still open in Tenerife and Gran Canaria. "We will offer them both possibilities when they call us to facilitate access," said Reyero.

"These people have a very good routine every year with the flu campaign as when it starts they call right away, and now we will remind those over 70 that they have to get the additional dose against Covid if they have already passed six months since their second jab, information of which that the SCS already has, and this means we can give them a date to be inoculated against both at the same time.

The vaccination teams will offer the two vaccines, one in each arm, even if there is an appointment for only one of them," adds Reyero, who highlights the importance of having broad coverage for the two viruses.

“We are still in a pandemic and although we are vaccinated against Covid, the flu is still there and with the relaxation of prevention measures, such as the use of a mask, it will emerge this year for sure, and we do not know how it will have an effect, so we need to know that these measures that we have used against coronavirus also serve us for the flu," she insists.

Practically the entire Canarian population over 70 years of age has been vaccinated against Covid (99.5%) and the third dose they will receive will be of the same formula except for the around 3,000 people who were vaccinated with Janssen and will have a booster from Pfizer. Statistics show that 199,000 over 70s had Pfizer the first time round, 28,000 were immunized with Moderna, and none with AstraZeneca.

Reyero hopes that the response of this population group for the third dose will remain at almost one hundred percent: “We will have to wait and see what the response is, which we believe will continue to be very good, and will insist on its importance because, above all, it is targeted for the most vulnerable groups, whom we must continue to protect, and so far the response of people in nursing homes and immune-suppressed patients has been very good.”