Chile has cleared Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine, the fifth approved in the country

The regulatory authorities of Chile approved this Thursday the emergency use of the vaccine from the Janssen laboratory, from Johnson & Jonhson, which becomes the fifth injection authorized after Pfizer / BioNTech, the Chinese companies Sinovac and CanSino and Astrazeneca.

“We have approved the WHO authorization, a process that opens up the possibility of recognizing other vaccines that already benefit from this support, such as Moderna or Sinopharm,” announced the director of the Institute of Public Health (ISP ), Heriberto García.

Unlike Janssen, previous vaccines have been evaluated and submitted to Chilean experts for advice.

This new vaccine will arrive in the country via the Covax mechanism, the platform promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO), which will send 600,000 doses from the third trimester.

According to the agency, the efficacy of the serum is 66.9% 14 days after administrationagainst 95% for Pfizer / BioNTech or 80% for AstraZeneca.

For severe or critical cases, its coverage reaches 76.7% at two weeks, and rises to 85.4% within 28 days of inoculation.added the official.

The vaccine, which requires a single dose and is an adenovirus carrier virus, is already authorized in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Colombia, the European Union, Mexico and the United States in people over 18 years old.

With 8.5 million people vaccinated in two doses (56% of the target population), and over 6.6 million in two doses (73%), Chile leads one of the most successful immunization processes in the world.

According to data from the University of Oxford, it is the second country in the world with the highest percentage of population fully vaccinated.

Experts say the early and diverse negotiation of vaccines, as well as the extensive primary care network, are key factors for successful vaccination.

Of the 22 million doses Chile has received since the start of the pandemic, more than 17 million have come from Coronavac, although they have also come in lesser measures from Pfizer (4.1 million), Astrazeneca ( approximately 700,000) and Cansino (300,000).

The country, which exceeds 1.4 million contaminations and 30,000 deaths, cannot leave behind a second wave which began in March after the summer holidays and which put the health system in the ropes, which continues with an occupancy greater than 95%.

Restrictions have since been relaxed, but borders remain closed, the state of emergency for disaster continues and most of the population remains confined at least on weekends.

(With information from EFE)

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