First batch of Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines arrived in Chile

A first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines To prevent coronavirus infections, he arrived by plane this Thursday in Santiago de Chile with 10,000 doses that will begin to be inoculated during the same day to health workers in the regions most affected by the pandemic.

The plane, coming from Belgium, landed at 6:47 a.m. local time at the capital’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, making Chile one of the first countries in Latin America by receiving the first doses of Pfizer after Mexico and Costa Rica.

The batch will be transported to the distribution center, located in Santiago, in crates with ice to keep the temperature of the doses at 70 degrees below zero, then distributed in the capital, in La Araucanía, Biobío and Magallanes, in the south of the country.

In these three regions, the most affected by the pandemic, the doses of this batch will be enough to vaccinate 100% of the medical staff, while in the metropolitan region, which is home to the capital and in which 7 million inhabitants live, only it will be administered to a third of the toilets.

The next shipment, with 10,000 additional doses, will arrive next week and the process will continue. until you finish ten million that Chile has reserved for this laboratory, detailed the presidential office.

In the first quarter of 2021, the elderly and chronically ill, representing around 5 million people, will be vaccinated. The rest of the population, around 15 million Chileans, will be able to benefit from it in the first half of 2021.

The southern country, which exceeds 590,000 cases of SARS-CoV-2 and has 16,228 deaths, was one of the first countries in Latin America to authorize, on December 16, the use of the Pfizer vaccine, which will be free and voluntary .

Upon arrival of the shipment, President of Chile Sebastián Piñera told the media: “Many people have worked hard for a long time to assure their compatriots that they will have an effective and timely vaccine.”

“It will be a difficult process, because this year has been a difficult one, but the Chileans have shown the quality of the wood we are made of and we have faced these adversities with courage, resilience and will,” he said.

And he said that to avoid opportunism, the vaccine “is voluntary and free and the state will provide it”.

OTHER VACCINES

In recent months, agreements have been signed with other laboratories for the distribution of vaccines, including the Chinese firm Sinovac, the Janssen group of Johnson & Johnson and the AstraZeneca group in collaboration with the University of Oxford, ensuring the distribution of more than 30 million doses in total.

In addition, in September, the country joined the COVAX Facility platform, promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Alliance for Immunization (GAVI), which aims to guarantee universal access to medicine.

Chile went through critical moments between May and July, becoming one of the countries with the most daily infections in the world, although between September and November the pandemic recorded a sharp decline, maintaining the rate of positivity in below 5%.

In the capital and in some towns in the south, the number of daily cases has increased in recent weeks, which has led the authorities to order quarantine in these areas on weekends and holidays, a measure that will be in effect for Christmas and New Year.

With information from EFE.