Coronavirus: Chile, first country in South America to apply a third dose of vaccine against covid-19 | Society

Chile kicked off this Wednesday with the third dose against covid-19, in a plan to strengthen a first step in the nearly two million people over the age of 55 who have been vaccinated twice with Chinese Coronavac. It does this six months after the mass covid-19 vaccination process began last February and when 82.44% of the target population has completed their vaccination schedule, largely with the Sinovac laboratory formula. The Chilean government made the move after finding that this vaccine continues to show significant signs of effectiveness in hospitalization, intensive care admission and death, but its effectiveness in preventing the disease has increased from 67% to 58.49% symptomatic, according to a study released last week by the Department of Health, which included millions of people.

With this strengthening process, Chile becomes the first country in South America to initiate the third dose of covid-19 vaccination, as Uruguay, another country where the measure has been approved, allocated hours to the population from next Monday. In the rest of Latin America, the Dominican Republic began inoculation with the third puncture in July.

While the pandemic is going through a controlled phase in the middle of winter, with about 1.5% positivity nationally, this Wednesday the over 86s who received the second of two doses of Sinovac between March 1 and 14. Health authorities have decided that adults over 55 will receive reinforcement with Britain’s AstraZeneca. “We know that when a combination of heterologous vaccines is carried out, the immune response has been very positive”, explained a few days ago the Under-Secretary of Health, Paula Daza. The ministry said, however, that other types of combinations will be used later and that people under the age of 55 vaccinated with China will receive the booster dose with Pfizer, as will immunocompromised patients. In all cases, the official calendar will be known gradually.

The rhythm of the reinforcement injections is intense. “We had a large crowd at the vaccination center, so we ask for your patience. We vaccinate in one day what we did in four ”, reported this afternoon via its social networks the municipality of Las Condes, one of the wealthiest in the capital. In otras zonas de la ciudad, en tanto, los municipios estimulaban la nueva inmunización: “Si conoces a alguien que cumpla con los requisitos, acompáñalo a uno de nuestros puntos de vacunación”, indicaba el municipio de Recoleta, in the zona centro de Santiago From Chile.

Chile has established that its target population is 15,200,840 people, out of nearly 18 million. But there are still a large number of laggards of different ages: 1.8 million in total, who, having been able to be vaccinated, did not do so. The largest amount is concentrated in the metropolitan region of the capital, where 77% of the target population is vaccinated, with significant differences between municipalities. “How can you be so stubborn that you don’t understand that not getting the vaccine puts not only your life, but the lives of everyone around you?” President Sebastián Piñera asked during a public event in as part of the start of the booster vaccination. Meanwhile, pushed by the good numbers of the pandemic, the recently assumed governor of the capital, the Christian Democrat Claudio Orrego, called for “greater freedom for the people”, taking refuge in “democratic normality”, then he seeks that the touch The curfew for Santiago de Chile is postponed from ten o’clock to twelve o’clock in the evening, as is currently the case in other regions of the country.

Chile refuerza el esquema de vacunación en medio de una etapa de relativo control de la crisis sanitaria de la covid-19, mientras persists the uncertidumbre por las consecuencias de la variant delta, que llegó al país hace semanas y tiene cerca de 90 cases confirmed a National level. Given its level of contagion, there is particular concern for minors who have not been punctured. Chile practices vaccination between 12 and 17 years old with the Pfizer formula, although this group has not yet been completed. The population between three and 11 years old would be vaccinated in the coming weeks, after having been advised by the group of experts which advises the Ministry of Health.

The Chilean strategy against covid-19 includes, in parallel, an alliance with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, which will install a vaccine production plant for Latin America in the Chilean capital which will be able to produce around 60 million doses annually. The project will start in the first half of 2022 with the operation of a bottling plant in the Chilean capital and, later, an innovation and development center in Antofagasta, in the north of the country, which will produce doses entirely in Chile. The vaccine from the Chinese laboratory, which will invest around $ 60 million in the project, is present in other countries in the region such as Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay. In Chile, since March 2020, more than 45,000 people have died from covid-19.

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