Spain to allocate 1 Billion Euros to Develop COVID-19 Vaccine

Spain will set aside 1.01 billion euros ($1.19 billion) for coronavirus vaccines next year, the government said on Wednesday at a presentation of the 2021 budget bill.

The minority government still needs to gain parliamentary support to pass the draft budget into law.

ُEarlier on today, the Spanish Health Ministry added 267 Covid-19 related deaths to the official count in its daily report released on Tuesday.

This is the highest number of victims to be reported since Spain entered the second wave of the pandemic. This brings the official toll, which only includes deaths that were confirmed by a PCR or serological test, to 35,298.

The real figure may be closer to 60,000. The Health Ministry had not recorded more than 267 deaths since May, when the first wave of the pandemic was on a downward trend.

A similar number was also registered on March 20, when Spain first began to see a rise in coronavirus cases. Shortly after, in early April, the number of daily fatalities peaked, with nearly 1,000 recorded each day.