Ecuador begins this Monday to vaccinate minors between 12 and 15 years old against COVID-19: “We want to extend collective immunity”

Ecuador begins this Monday to vaccinate minors between 12 and 15 years, following a plan that covers 77% of the population over 16 years, in three and a half months, and in order to extend collective immunity before starting with the third dose in January to the general population.

The first schoolchildren in this bracket – so far only those over 16 have been vaccinated – will receive a single dose of anticovid-19 from pharmaceutical company Pfizer on Monday. This is a “target population” of 1,347,856 adolescents, according to data from the Ministry of Health, which has not been able to say whether vaccination will be compulsory or voluntary.

The two most populous provinces, Guayas and Pichincha, have respectively 324,671 and 225,121 minors in this age group, that is to say, they concentrate 40.8% of minors.

The campaign will take place between this Monday and October 30 and has been left in the hands of the mobile brigades of the Health Centers which will visit each center.

MINORS FIRST, THEN THIRD DOSE

In an interview with Efe, President Guillermo Lasso explained on Thursday that its intention is to “extend immunity” before moving to the third dose for the general population, which is expected to happen in January.

“The next step begins Monday, September 13 to vaccinate those under 16 to 12 years old, then we will move on to the next phase to vaccinate those under 12Said the president, whose initial plan was to vaccinate 9 million people on a full schedule during his first 100 days in office.

Having achieved this goal on September 1, Lasso prefers to extend immunity, pending scientific and medical evaluations regarding the effect of the third dose.

“There are scientific theories that recommend a third dose, it is very likely that we will accept this scientific theory and that from next year, starting in January, we would start applying the third dose to all Ecuadorians” , said the president, who clarified that it is expected that until the end of this year 80% of Ecuador’s population will be covered with vaccines against covid-19.

The country has stocks of 4.2 million vaccines until the end of September and around 5.5 million in round numbers for the next few months to complete the two doses or complete the vaccination schedule for most of the population. .

EXECUTION PLAN

Immunization of adolescents is in the hands of the Ministries of Education and Public Health, which will work in a coordinated manner. Education will coordinate with the various Health Centers so that mobile brigades attend public and private educational units so that students who attend classes, either face-to-face or remotely, receive the vaccine, a statement said.

The school year in the Andean country is celebrated in a mixed way, with just over 3,000 open educational centers, but the others, which are the vast majority, are still closed. For this reason, to undertake the campaign, the two ministries are counting on the fact that the centers which are still closed will guarantee the attendance of their pupils of the aforementioned age by allocating predetermined schedules.

The objective of the Government with the vaccination of minors is that the extension of collective immunity allows a greater reopening of classrooms, which would entail a whole complementary activity in transport, food, extracurricular activities, and a long list of parallel services.

“In this way, together with the biosafety protocols established in each establishment, we strengthen the guarantee of the gradual return to classrooms in a face-to-face, progressive, controlled and voluntary manner”, stressed the Ministry of Health.

It will also allow many parents to leave home after more than a year and a half and return to work on a regular basis. To date, according to the Health press release, 294,102 students aged 16 and over have been vaccinated.

(with information from the EFE)

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