Alyssa McMurtry
09 April 2021•Update: 09 April 2021
OVIEDO, Spain
As Spain’s daily coronavirus infections topped the 10,000 mark for the first time since February, some regional governments reported a growing rejection of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On Friday, Madrid health councilor Antonio Zapatero slammed the central government for creating “confusion” and “uncertainty” with its “wishy-washy” vaccine strategy.
He said that of the 29,000 people with appointments to get the AstraZeneca jab on Thursday, only about a third – 10,800 – showed up.
The day prior, before the government changed its strategy to only vaccinate people older than 60, he said just 2% of people rejected the vaccine.
Officials in Andalusia also said they have already noticed diminishing enthusiasm for the controversial jab, noting a 20% rejection rate.
The Canary Islands and Galicia officials say they have not seen a significant change, but official statistics show that Spain gave fewer than half of the doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday than it did before European authorities reported a “possible link” to rare blood clots.
Spain’s shift in strategy may also account for at least part of the slowdown.
Growing hesitancy around the vaccine comes as infections continue to spike across most of the country.
On Friday, Catalonia tried to deal with its surge by shutting down unnecessary travel between cities. The capital Madrid also cut off travel to and from five towns and 17 neighborhoods.
At the same time, Madrid and the Canary Islands lifted travel bans aimed at preventing domestic tourism over the Easter holidays.
Hospitalizations remained relatively steady, with another 149 deaths, bringing the country’s total COVID-19 death toll to 76,328.
In total, 15% of Spain’s population has gotten at least one vaccine dose.
Despite the problems with AstraZeneca, the country administered a near-record of 420,000 daily jabs on Thursday, nearly 80% of them from Pfizer.
