Uruguay to delay application of second dose of Pfizer vaccine to people over 80 and healthcare workers so more people can immunize

Uruguay will space out the administration of the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer to people over 80, healthcare workers and adults in nursing homes, with the aim of having enough vaccines to inoculate the population aged 71 to 79, they do not have a specific date to start their vaccination.

As he said this Wednesday in an interview with the local station Radio Sarandí immunologist Alejandro Chabalgoity, member of the National Advisory Committee on Vaccination, the possibility of leaving “a period of 42 to 56 days” between the first and the second dose of the American vaccine is raised “Instead of 28 or 30” and argued “that in many parts of the world it is used as a standard.”

The population aged 71 to 79 was “lagging behind”, according to the expert, who added that “it is being studied all over the world that it can take about 10 days (dilation of the second dose) without diminishing the response”.

The slow arrival of the 2 million doses purchased by Uruguay the American laboratory forced the government of the South American country to alternative strategy to administer the vaccine.

Despite the fact that, as they confirmed Efe sources from the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), The portfolio came to consider the possibility of vaccinating people between 71 and 79 years old with the Chinese CoronaVac, the expert indicated that it was excluded because of the greater effectiveness of Pfizer in this age group.

Until Wednesday (including the flight that lands that day with additional delivery), Uruguay has just over 200,000 doses of Pfizer, which supposes a 10% of the committed amount, of which around 120,000 have already been injected.

Recently, the secretary of the presidency, Álvaro Delgado, announced on Twitter that the government had reached a deal to increase Pfizer’s weekly deliveries to over 80,000 since the second week of April, although she has never confirmed whether this would increase the total of 460,000 entered until April 26.

President, Luis Lacalle Pou, noted last Monday that “the vaccination process is marked by vaccines”. “What you need to do is vaccinate knowing that there is the second dose for each of these people who are vaccinated. We received a very large amount at the start with Sinovac, with Pfizer we are receiving more than what was originally planned, so you always have to be careful not to miss a second dose, ”he said.

Uruguay launched its vaccination plan with CoronaVac for priority groups on March 1 (teachers, police, military, firefighters and workers from the Institute for Children and Adolescents). Faced with weaker than expected demand, the surpluses were sent to the country’s northern border and to the prison population.

Later, the agenda would be open to the people between 18 and 70 years old, whatever their profession or risk situation.

So far, just over 500,000 people have been vaccinated in Uruguay, which represents 15% of the total.

With information from EFE

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