Madrid, May 18 (IANS) Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that the mass vaccination of people under the age of 50 will begin in June as the country's Covid inoculation program continues to pace up.

According to the Ministry of Health, just over 30 per cent of all Spaniards have received at least one dose of vaccine, reports Xinhua news agency.

Sanchez said on Monday that reaching herd immunity against the coronavirus was "the best economic policy to overcome the pandemic".

"Nearly every day, we are setting new records in the number of vaccines being administered," he said.

The Prime Minister added added that Spain was "close to a weekly total of 3 million vaccinations and that the public health system has the capacity to increase in the coming weeks".

He also spoke of the "digital green certificate", which aims to allow travellers to visit another country in the EU without the need to quarantine if they have been vaccinated, have a negative test result or have overcome the infection.

"We are one of the countries that has been selected to take part in the pilot test on a European level from May 14 to see how it functions.

"The first results are very positive and it is our aim to have it working before the end of June," said Sanchez, who will formally present the certificate at the Fitur 2021, an international tourism trade fair in Madrid on May 21.

Spain has so far reported 3,615,860 Covid-19 cases and 79,432 deaths.

--IANS ksk/