Madrid: Salvador Illa, Spanish Health Minister, has confirmed that the country will begin the vaccination programme against the novel coronavirus from December 27 onwards.

The programme will first administer the BioNTech Pfizer vaccine, of which the first consignment will begin arriving in the country on December 26, reports Xinhua news agency.

"If Europe has agreed that vaccination begins in a coordinated manner, in Spain we are going to start the first possible day," Illa said at a press conference on Friday.

The Health Minister said that he is waiting for European authorities to confirm the number of doses that Spain will receive, but promised that it would be "an equitable distribution".

Illa also expressed his hope that around "20 million citizens" will be vaccinated by May or June 2021.

"This means the start of the end of the pandemic, it is not the end of the pandemic, we will have to keep our guard up, but it is the start of the end," the Minister added.

As of Saturday, Spain has reported a total of 1,797,236 coronavirus cases and 48,926 deaths.