Pfizer's delivery of COVID-19 vaccine delayed to Spain & other EU nations, issue resolved

The delivery of a new batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to Spain and eight other European Union nations has been delayed due to some logistical issues. The Spanish Health Ministry on Monday said that the delivery of the new batch of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which was earlier scheduled to arrive on Monday, will now reach on Tuesday. According to Sky News, Spain's Health Minister Salvador Illa, while speaking to the local media, said that the delay was caused due to a temperature control issue, which has now been resolved and the shipment is ready to fly. 

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'Sufficient for all Spanish citizens'

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a minimum storage temperature of -70 degrees Celcius, which poses a huge logistical challenge for the manufacturers and its customers. Spain and other European nations are receiving weekly doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine approved by the EU on December 12. Spain started the vaccination campaign in the country on December 27 after the EU said it will start the inoculation process in the region between December 27 and 29. Salvador Illa, in a press statement on December 18, had said that there will be a sufficient number of doses available for all Spanish citizens. 

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"It will be a significant number of doses that will reach our country but it will be a progressive and weekly process; we will receive doses and distribute them among the CCAA, which will be the ones that cite the people who have to be vaccinated according to the priority groups established in the Vaccination Strategy," Illa had said in a statement. 

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Spain is one of the worst affected nations in the world and not just in Europe. The country has reported more than 1.8 million infections so far, while nearly 50,000 people have lost their lives. The number of daily cases in the country began to rise in August this year and at its peak, Spain recorded nearly 20,000 cases on a single day, which occurred on October 19. However, the number of daily infections have now begun to come down with fluctuations every now and then. 

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