The Canary Islands have reached the goal of having 70% of the target population over 12 years of age fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the Ministry of Health last night, adding that 1,960,774 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, representing 81.07% of the target population, and figures that mean every second jab now inoculated takes us one jab closer to herd immunity and containing the virus.
The president of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres, was the first to praise both the Health Service and the people that have had the vaccine, saying: “Congratulations to everyone!! A round of applause to the Canarian population and thankyou to the Canary Islands Health Service. Reaching 70% has been an admirable job for nurses, vaccination teams, the Ministry of Health, citizens, and is our first milestone, herd immunity. We will now continue until we reach 100% of the population.
The head of the Epidemiology Section of the General Directorate of Public Health of the Government of the Canary Islands, Amós Garcia, said: "The health system has worked, and its professionals have carried out a brilliant exercise of responsibility. It has been a difficult objective, but we have done it. However, we cannot just stay at that 70%, we have to move forward because the arrival of the Delta variant has made it more and it is necessary to continue vaccinating, 70% is no longer enough to achieve full group immunity”
Garcia also praised the response of the public, and in particular the younger generation who have responded and been vaccinated in the last few weeks, “their involvement in the vaccination process in the Canary Islands has been spectacular and they have responded very well. It is impressive how the public have ignored the rants and claims from anti-vaxxers and deniers, and have continued to come forward to be inoculated. We are a group of islands that rely on people coming here, vaccination is the only way forward.”
In regards to those who have chosen not to be vaccinated, Assembly 7 Islas, which groups 11,000 workers belonging to more than 27 categories of health and non-health personnel together, has asked the Ministry of Health to collate and publish a list of every single person that hasn’t been vaccinated, and their reasons why.
They claim that part of the problem is people don’t want to be told which vaccine they are having, but would rather choose which one they have, which would lead to a percentage of those not vaccinated yet, being inoculated.
In a statement, they said that “the intention of making a list of people who have not yet been vaccinated is to know the reason for their decision. We are aware that there is a lot of misinformation promoted by deniers, this will help trackers to give the information necessary and clarify doubts”.
