Chile brought the start of the coronavirus vaccination for teachers and educators to this Monday

The Chilean government has announced that Next Monday February 15, vaccination against the coronavirus will begin for teachers and educators in general. This implies a one-week lead, since this group would start being vaccinated on February 22.

“We have already vaccinated more than 1.8 million citizens and in an exemplary manner. From February 15, we will start immunizing people aged 65 to 70, as well as teachers and education workers., to facilitate the start of the school year with safety and confidence “, declared the president, Sebastian piñeraand Twitter.

In addition to the president’s announcement on the social network, the government released a statement on behalf of Piñera. “We want to make an announcement. We have decided to anticipate the start of the vaccination of teachers and educators for next Monday 15. to facilitate the return to face-to-face lessons from March and thus make up for lost time and provide all our young people with the quality education they so need and deserve ”, indicates the letter published by the presidency on Friday.

The head of state, who was vaccinated on Friday, also thanked health workers “through an exemplary mass vaccination process“.

“We are approaching 2 million people vaccinated, which represents a privileged position in Latin America and in the world ”, concluded the president.

Keys to successful vaccination in Chile

Experts point out two aspects to explain the speed with which the process takes place, which is voluntary and free: the competence to negotiate vaccines Yes the vast network of primary care, which crosses every corner of this country of more than 4,200 kilometers and which has enabled it to carry out campaigns in its history, such as that of polio in 1961.

For Claudio Castillo, Public health expert from the University of Santiago de Chile, the country has played the game well with the laboratories, as he negotiated “from very early on” and whatever the geopolitics, which allowed him to receive nearly 4 million doses of Sinovac.

“The Chinese vaccine is not yet very massive, it is mainly found in China, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil. Today more and more countries are joining, but at first it did not have the seal of guarantee that Pfizer did. Chile’s contract diversification strategy has been very good“He added.

Chile, which has also approved the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines and is studying Russian vaccines Sputnik and Janssen, committed more than 35 million doses from different laboratories and the Covax platform, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to guarantee universal access.

“The main challenge for a country like Chile, which has ideal logistical conditions, is to have sufficient stock», He explained to Efe Christopher square, scholar of the School of Public Health of the State University of Chile.

In Castillo’s view, the main challenge will emerge in a few weeks, when the inoculation of the second dose coincides with the influenza campaign in the southern hemisphere, since “you must wait at least two weeks between the two injections“.

The pandemic has already caused around 765,000 infected people and more than 19,200 deaths since the start of March in Chile, which passed its first major peak in July and is plunged into a second wave.

(With information from EFE)

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