As in most autonomous communities, the incidence in Asturias is «especially higher in the younger age groups».
The Regional Minister of Health, Pablo Fernández Muñiz, during the meeting of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, pointed out that the issuing of the European Covid-19 Certificate in Asturias «is already underway and is working very well».
Muñiz pointed out that the issuing of certificates is being tested throughout Spain and added that on 1 July it will be compulsory for the process to be fully implemented and «certainly before that date, we will have it working perfectly».
Referring to the epidemiological evolution, Muñiz said that in Asturias, as in most of the autonomous communities, «we are in a situation of slow decrease of the accumulated incidence and also of continuous improvement of both hospitalisation indicators and Covid patients in Intensive Care Units».
The Regional Minister also added that as in most autonomous communities, the incidence in Asturias is «especially higher in younger age groups and although it is true that in Catalonia they are already warning us that we are seeing an incidence with a new variant such as the Delta variant which really worries us, but here in Asturias we are not seeing cases at the moment, but we are very vigilant».
The mask continues
As for the use of masks, Muñiz said that for the moment «there are no new developments» although he stressed that when the time comes when the population can be outdoors without a mask, «there will be guidelines that will be the same for the whole country (…) for the moment in Asturias we are in no hurry for it, when the time comes it will mean that we are better both in terms of immunity and epidemiological level of our society, and therefore we will proceed to do it as well».
As for the difference between tourists and displaced persons, he reported that «Asturias is indeed vaccinating displaced persons. Displaced persons know that they have to go through a procedure to obtain a displaced person’s card, which entitles them to the same care as the rest of the people who are residing here, and therefore, among this care, they will also receive vaccinations».
He went on to comment that the controversy over the vaccination of pregnant women, «in this eighth update, will properly refer to how this vaccination of pregnant women should be carried out».
Nearly 3.5 million AstraZéneca vaccines
Finally, in general terms on vaccination, he indicated that in Asturias the process is being carried out with «great agility, and it is being very useful because since we started to vaccinate with agility in the highest risk patients, hospitalisation and the severity of the cases is clearly decreasing», He pointed out that in most cases, the ministry can distribute the AstraZeneca vaccine to provide second doses to the largest number of people inoculated with this vaccine. «The ministry assures that these second doses are guaranteed, with 400,000 doses from AstraZeneca expected to arrive in Spain this week, 500,000 next week and more than two and a half million units in the last week of the month.
