The Department of Health has also included in the vaccination program against covid all foreign -comunitarios and non-comunitarios residing in the province of Alicante , registered not enrolled in Social Security, but provided they have SIP health card , which does not in all cases mean that health care is free. Health has them registered in the system and will call them in the group that corresponds to them, although in the last placeAccording to sources from the Ministry yesterday, they reiterated that if a foreign resident wants to be vaccinated in Spain, they must have, at least, the SIP and updated identification. Another case with foreigners with the universal health card, whose vaccination process will be the same as that of Alicante and other Spaniards living in the province. Health explained this extreme yesterday after the controversy in Malaga, when the Andalusian Health Service announced that it will not vaccinate foreigners who are not registered in the Spanish health system, so if they want to be inoculated they will have to return to their countries of origin.

Some 340,000 foreigners reside in the province of Alicante, including citizens of the European Union and third countries , a group of which 70,000 British residents have been part since January 1 , of which 50,000 have no impediment because they were legally registered. in the Spanish registry before last December 31st. The problem may be the 20,000 temporary residents who have not been written in the registry, who must now request at least the SIP card or update the one they have to be entitled to the vaccine just as Health has decided. These are people who even spend long periods in the province, either in rented houses or even in hotels, but who do not have data in Health because they simply go unnoticed. If they do not apply for the SIP card or enroll in Immigration, they will not have the right to vaccination, since for vaccination against covid it is not useful to have a private health care insurance.

An analogous case to these temporary residents is the one that occurs with the increasingly numerous colony of US and Canadian resident citizens - some 1,300, a figure unthinkable ten years ago - who reside in the province. Health will also vaccinate them, but has also established for this that they have the SIP card. Some count on it, but only to receive care in a public hospital that they then have to pay for as if it were a private service, because they do not have the right to receive free care. “Everyone will be vaccinated but we need them to apply for the SIP card, or to update the one they have to be able to locate them. They will be called to vaccinate them but in the last place on the list in their corresponding groups, "they stressed from Health. Another topic is foreigners, apart from those who have a universal health card, who live in the province but are not identified by Health. If they want to be vaccinated, they must return to their countries of origin.

The Population Information System (SIP) is the corporate administrative registry of the Ministry of Health that collects and updates the identification data, location, allocation of health resources (area, zone, center and doctor) and right to health benefits of the people residing in the province.

The SIP health card is integrated with the other information systems of the Ministry of interest to citizens, such as clinical records in primary or specialized care, vaccination registry ... and with information systems of interest for management and control health spending and pharmaceutical benefits, among others. It is an indispensable tool for the control and surveillance of public health, and necessary and useful for research in health matters.

The information of the SIP is updated by the operators who connect online to the application from the healthcare, primary and specialized centers of the province. It is also updated through computer crossings with databases from institutions that provide data of interest related to insurance.

The English hope to have a "free and happy" summer

The United Kingdom hopes to be close to normal next summer thanks to its rapid vaccination campaign, which has triggered the interest of the British in tourist destinations, both national and abroad, among which the Costa Blanca stands out. More than 18 million Britons have already received at least one dose of the covid vaccine and the Government estimates that a high percentage of the adult population will have been immunized in August, prompting Health Minister Matt Hancock to move forward a "great summer, free and happy." The rate of vaccination in the rest of European countries is slow but Spain hopes to give a push in April and maintains that 70% of the population will be vaccinated in summer.