Wednesday Jan 13, 2021 at 10:53 AM Jan 13, 2021 at 11:18 AM
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) A judge in northwest Spain has overruled a family s objections and decided to allow health authorities to administer a coronavirus vaccine to an incapacitated woman in a nursing home.
The case appears to be the first known instance of a court in Europe requiring someone to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The Spanish government repeatedly has stressed that shots would be voluntary, as have authorities in other European countries.
In a ruling seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday, the judge for the court in the autonomous northwest community of Galicia recently ruled in favor of a request by a nursing home to override the refusal of the elderly resident s family and to proceed with giving her the vaccine.
The number of new coronavirus infections reported on Wednesday by the central Health Ministry, 38,869 in 24 hours, is by far the worst seen so far in the pandemic. The previous record was 25,595, on October 30. The figure was 53% up on the previous day, and is triple the highest figure seen during the first wave last year â although it should be noted that tests were only being carried out on the most serious cases at that time, and around two-thirds of infections are thought to have gone undiagnosed at that time.
But even bearing this in mind, the nearly 39,000 cases reported yesterday would still be at the maximum levels seen, and the real figure is likely even higher taking into account the fact that even now not all infections are detected by tests and that many asymptomatic cases do not seek medical treatment at all. In total, according to the ministry report, there have been 2,176,089 confirmed positive cases in Spain since the health crisis began.