(Adds Madrid region meeting Sputnik V officials)
MADRID, April 6 (Reuters) - Spain is accelerating its
COVID-19 vaccination rollout and will have fully inoculated 25
million people by late July, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said
on Tuesday, also confirming the end-August target of giving 70%
of all Spaniards their shots.
"The pace of vaccination will accelerate in April and then
each month we will improve the vaccination pace from the
previous month," Sanchez told a news conference, attributing a
slow start of the campaign to delivery delays by vaccine maker
AstraZeneca across the European Union.
The July target covers 53% of Spain's 47 million-strong
population, or 64% of all adults, and is largely in line with
the EU's July goal of inoculating 70% of its adult population.
Sanchez said the number of those fully vaccinated will
surpass the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases, which on Monday
stood at 3.3 million, by next week.
The government's aim is not to extend a state of emergency,
which expires on May 9 after being in force for six months, if
the numbers allow, he added.
Infections have been rising steadily for around three weeks
but remain far below levels seen elsewhere in Europe.
Spain will receive 87 million vaccine doses between April
and September, Sanchez said, with second-quarter delivery
volumes expected to exceed the January-March level by 3.5 times.
Data released on Monday showed around 5.7 million people had
received at least one shot, while 2.8 million had received a
full course of two doses.
Separately, the Madrid regional government said on Tuesday
it had met with representatives of the maker of Russia's Sputnik
V shot to "explore ways of accelerating its vaccination
campaign".
The European Medicines Agency has yet to grant its approval
to Sputnik V, and Sanchez reiterated Spain would only use
EMA-backed shots.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Belen Carreno, Nathan Allen, Aida
Pelaez-Fernandez, editing by Andrei Khalip and Nick Macfie)