the city’s vaccination plan before the second wave

The government of Buenos Aires will use the vaccines it has and the next lots that will arrive at prior vaccination of the elderly. Thus, this age group will be prioritized and teachers, who has started to be vaccinated, must expect. Also other groups included in the six original steps, What members of the security forces and the rest of the so-called “strategic” personnel. After finishing the elderly, everything seems to indicate that stage 5 is advanced and that vaccination will continue for those who are considered at risk by previous illnesses and are between 18 and 59 years old.

Until Tuesday evening, the City was to finish some 30,000 people over 80 years. For this, it has enough vaccines, according to the count made after the arrival of batches last week from Sputnik V and Covishield, in this case from the Covax fund. In addition, the capital will receive approximately 21,000 additional doses of Sputnik who arrived on the flight that returned from Russia on Tuesday. And, according to the distribution calculations made so far, it would have a few Sinopharm’s cargo 70,000 that he went to get a plane that left on the same Tuesday.

For this reason, from this Wednesday will begin the stage of over 75 years, which has already 92,000 registered. They will be vaccinated in San Lorenzo, Roca Park and La Rural. And from this Thursday, on the other hand, those who have between 70 and 74. Shifts will be assigned based on the number of doses that will arrive over the next few weeks.

Regarding the geriatric, of the Ministry of Health of Buenos Aires, they assured that in the next ten days, they planned end the 16,542 people living in 478 residences. On Monday, they had vaccinated half of it.

Buenos Aires is one of the neighborhoods with the oldest population in the country. According to data from the Statistics and Census Department – based on projected figures from the last national census in 2010 – there are 122,866 people aged 70 to 74; 99037 other people aged 75 to 79; and 148,787 people over 80 years old.

These data led the government of Buenos Aires to propose a modification of the methodology of vaccine distribution, because it is in Buenos Aires that is also found the highest percentage of health personnel.

Later, the pace of vaccine arrival accelerated on the part of the national government and, before the start of the second wave of infections, the discussion revolved around apply a single dose to reach more people faster and build immunity faster.

“My technical point of view is that we should rapidly expand vaccination with a single dose to all at-risk groups that we can reach, and two or three months later, apply the second dose to ensure continuity of coverage, ”said Buenos Aires Minister of Health Fernán Quirós.

The city has 1,200,000 people considered in the six steps proposed for the vaccination plan. In addition to the personal health, which appears in stage 1 and the vast majority have already received at least one dose, and the elderly (stages 2 and 3), in stage 4, are the “strategic personnel which includes members of the security forces.” Also teachers, 16,000 of whom have already been vaccinated.

When the first doses of Sinopharm arrived they have not been approved for people over 60. So the City initially decided not to follow the national recommendation and used it to move forward with health workers. As it later received another batch, it enabled the vaccination of teachers, non-teachers and directors of the initial and lower primary levels: about 16 thousand people.

But then the Sinopharm vaccine was licensed for use in people over the age of 60. Hence the new change to prioritize this age group, most affected by lethality.

Once those over 60 years old have ended, everything seems to indicate that the priority will be that of 18 and 59 years old with pre-existing conditions. With this, the step five than originally planned.

The government of Buenos Aires believes that with the vaccines the country plans to receive, the next three weeks could complete the vaccination of over 70s and start with the +60 (In this group there are already doctors and teachers who have been vaccinated to be active). So when the second wave is expected to hit harder, between 500,000 and 600,000 of the highest risk groups would be vaccinated.

SC