According to the regional Minister of Public Health, Jesús Aguirre, the vaccination programme has prevented 570 deaths in the province.

These figures are calculated on the forecast for deaths during 2021, which was 1,380 deaths but to date there have been 710, which is 48.5% fewer than expected. It is worth pointing out that 710 deaths is nothing to celebrate but even so…

This reduction, considers the Minister, is down to the vaccination roll out, which has reached 90% of the Andalusian population over 12; i.e., the ‘target population.’

The Health Minister says that thanks to the effectiveness of the Andalusian vaccine programme the cases per 100,000 ratio in our region, which stands at 30 per 100k, is well below the national average. Furthermore hospital occupation by Covid patients only represent 1.23% of all hospital patients.

However, he emphasised that the virus is still with us and has not disappeared, which tempered his optimistic message.

He concluded that the present day contagion figure is as low as it is going to go whilst a percentage of the population remains unvaccinated, which is made up of 590,000 adults who have not turned up for a jab, as well as children between the age of five and eleven.

This last group will begin their vaccination programme at the beginning of next month and will be carried out in the schools themselves.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)