Chile has passed one million people vaccinated against COVID-19

Chile surpassed one million people vaccinated against covid-19 on Tuesday, six days after the mass vaccination process began among the elderly, who joined medical staff who have already been vaccinated since December, the health ministry reported.

El país logró vacunar has a total of 1,025,580 personas, de entre las cuales 376,519 son mayores de 78 años que desde hace seis días arrancaron el proceso de inmunización masiva gracias a la adquisición de cuatro millones de dosis del laboratorio chino el Sinovac, informó Ministry of Health.

“Today, we exceed one million people vaccinated. We have a million reasons, most old people, to be happy“, Stressed, for his part, President Sebastián Piñera, on his official Twitter account.

Chile had managed to exceed 550,000 vaccinations last Saturday.

Government goal is to vaccinate five million people by the end of March and reach 15 of the 18 million inhabitants by July 2021.

The process took place quickly and only 222,070 people on Tuesday were vaccinated, including the elderly, workers performing functions of the essential and basic service of the State, pharmacy and laboratory staff, as well as members. armed forces and police deployed to witness the emergence of the pandemic.

Chile began vaccinating its health workers in December, when it received a first batch of 154,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNtech coronavirus vaccine, which has already infected more than 758,000 people and more than 19,000 deaths in the country.

The vaccination process was joined on Tuesday by Easter Island, the tourist island territory located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 3,700 km from mainland Chile, where 120 people were vaccinated on the first day after the arrival of a batch of 1200 drugs from Sinovac.

Island authorities say they have not recorded any cases of covid-19 for more than 300 days due to the fact that the tourist entrance is closed.

Since Wednesday, the free and voluntary vaccination campaign for the entire population has massive response from seniors over 80, the first convened this week. Many of them have agreed on their desire to regain some of the freedom lost since March of last year due to the pandemic.

From February 15, it will be the turn of people aged 69 to 60. As always, the order of vaccination will be descending by rank. It is expected that immediately after this, it will be the displacement of people between 18 and 59 years of age with co-morbidities. “In this group are the chronically ill: pulmonary asthma, bronchial, neurological diseases, hypertension, diabetics”, warned the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris. The health authority estimates that the tour of this group will take place during the last week of February, from Monday 22.

“Chile has signed agreements with major global suppliers for 35 million vaccines, therefore the population must be calm, ”declared the Minister.

Chile started vaccinating its healthcare workers in December, when it received a first batch of 154,000 Pfizer / BioNtech doses. Vaccines from Chinese laboratory Sinovac will total 10 million doses agreed with the government of President Sebastián Piñera.

According to the register of the Our World in Data site, Chile has thus become a regional leader and already equals the United States in the number of vaccinated per day per 100 inhabitants (0.38).

Chile has reached agreements to purchase around 36 million doses with Pfizer, Sinovac, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. For now, there is no pact with Moderna, and advances are not excluded later with Russian Sputnik V.

With information from EFE

MORE ON THIS TOPIC:

America’s COVID-19 Vaccination Rankings: Map and Statistics

Covid-19 can cause more than 50 long-term effects

Why so many healthcare workers refuse to receive the coronavirus vaccine

Four ultra-freezers have arrived in Uruguay to store coronavirus vaccines