Coronavirus: Chile approved emergency use of Sputnik V vaccine | This is the sixth formula authorized in the country

The Institute of Public Health (ISP) of Chile announced this Wednesday the emergency use authorization coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. The formula developed by the Gamaleya Center thus becomes the sixth vaccine approved in the country, after Pfizer, CoronaVac, AstraZeneca, CanSino and Janssen.

“The vaccine is safe and effective. All studies show that it has a good safety profile and that most of the adverse events detected were mild», Declared Heriberto García, director of the Institute of Public Health (ISP), which gave this Wednesday the green light to the Russian formula with five votes for, two abstentions and one vote against.

According to the Chilean authorities, the country will receive between 3 and 4 million doses of Sputnik V in the coming months, which will be added to the 27 million other laboratories already received, most of which correspond to Sinovac.

Following the emergency approval, the ISP noted that an interim review of the phase III trial of Sputnik V, published in February by the scientific journal The Lancet, suggests that the two-dose regimen of the drug offers a 91.6% efficiency against symptomatic diseases, a protection which in people over 60 years of age amounts to 91.8%.

This authorization comes when the The government is evaluating the application of a third dose to avoid regrowth, especially after the arrival of the Delta variant (the most contagious according to the World Health Organization): despite the fact that the borders have been closed since April – except in an emergency – nearly twenty cases of this variant in the trans-Andean country.

Coronavirus in Chile

Chile, which already exceeds 1.6 million infections and had 34,500 deaths, detected less than 1,000 new infections on Wednesday for the second day in a row, which had not happened since October 2020, and recorded a 2.7% positivity rate, the lowest since the start of the pandemic.

“All regions of the country have decreased their new cases in the last 7 and 14 days,” said Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.

After three months of a serious second wave that put the hospital system in the ropes, it is also admissions to intensive care units have dropped dramatically and there are currently 1,878 hospital patients, up from over 3,000 a few months ago.

The country has rolled out one of the world’s most successful covid-19 vaccination processes, which currently reaches over 85% of the population with a single dose and 77% with two doses. The key, local media point out, is early and diverse negotiation, as well as the extensive primary care network deployed across the country.