Amid surging infection rates, Spain has started giving the second doses of COVID-19 vaccines to elderly nursing home residents.

The country is rushing to vaccinate in care homes in a bid to prevent a repeat of the epidemic’s first wave, which led to the deaths of nearly 20,000 residents from March through May. 96-year old Araceli Hidalgo Sanchez, who is Spain’s earliest recipient of a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, expressed her delight to have received the second dose and encouraged others to get their vaccinations.

While the vaccination is voluntary in the country, a court in the southern city of Seville authorized a nursing home to inoculate a severely incapacitated 86-year-old woman, in spite of her son’s objections… (Reuters, January 18, 2021)