Uruguay will be the first Latin American country to vaccinate minors against COVID-19

Uruguay on Wednesday began immunizing adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 with doses of Pfizer, becoming the first country in Latin America to vaccinate minors against covid-19, a decision with which the authorities hope to resume presence in secondary education.

About 157,000 minors have already registered to be vaccinated against covid-19, out of a total population of 280,000 people included in this age group, said Health Under-Secretary José Luis Satdjian at a press conference.

This “gives us an indication of the great support of the entire population to be vaccinated,” he said.

Authorities hope to advance the face-to-face return to high school classes by the end of July, once the group reaches full immunity.. Primary schools reopen in June.

President Luis Lacalle Pou announced the decision on Tuesday last week in a television interview.

“Today, the Vaccines Commission has authorized vaccination from 12 to 18 years old, with which already at the end of this week we will ask that they be scheduled” in this age group, the president told the local channel.

The country thus became the first in Latin America to initiate the vaccination of minors. Chile has also authorized the vaccination of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 16 with Pfizer, but the campaign will begin after June 20, according to the Minister of Health.

Uruguay, with 3.5 million inhabitants, is currently the country with the highest number of deaths in the world in the last 14 days, in relation to its population, according to an assessment of AFP done on official data.

Despite the demands of the scientific community and opponents, Lacalle Pou has ruled out paralyzing the country by decreeing containment measures.

The government is betting on an intense vaccination campaign which, since its start on March 1, has already inoculated 58% of the population with at least one dose of Sinovac, Pfizer or Astrazeneca. 30% are already fully vaccinated.

On the other hand, Uruguay added 3,449 covid-19 cases on Wednesday after processing 22,520 tests, according to the daily report released by the National Emergency System (Sinae).

In addition, 67 people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 have died, a figure that brings the number of deaths to 4,816 since the health emergency was declared on March 13, 2020.

With the information known to date, Uruguay adds 326,405 cases of covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 35,117 people with the disease, 486 in Uruguay have reached 3 million doses of vaccines administered against COVID-19, admitted to intensive treatment centers (ICS).

With information from EFE and AFP

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