Uruguay to start vaccinating minors between 12 and 18 years old with doses of Pfizer

Uruguay to start coronavirus vaccine adolescents between 12 and 18 years old with doses from the American laboratory Pfizer, after approval by the vaccines commission of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), as announced Tuesday by President Luis Lacalle Pou.

“The Advisory Commission has cleared vaccination for 12-18 year olds and by the end of this week we will request that they be scheduled,” the president said in statements to the newspaper. The country from Montevideo.

In a television interview, Lacalle Pou admitted to being “worried” about the progress of the pandemic in Uruguay, but insisted that he trusted the measures applied by his executive and the vaccination process.

While in Argentina there is still a debate on negotiating for the purchase of Pfizer vaccines, in Uruguay they have already announced that children and adolescents aged 12 to 18 will be vaccinated with the dose of the American laboratory.

In addition, Lacalle Pou reported that the government signed a reserve of over 500,000 new doses of Coronavac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac. “There we will have all the vaccines for everyone in what we could call The final battle“said the president.

Uruguayan government even assesses management “a third dose” to strengthen the effectiveness of vaccines applied in the country: Pfizer, Coronavac or the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, the latter within the Covax platform of the World Health Organization (WHO).

In this context, Lacalle Pou ratified his rejection of the quarantines and confinements which were replicated in the main cities of the world and which he argued in his country does not believe that “a ‘lock’ will work”.

“Those who ask for quarantine are the employees, those who are billed at the end of the month (…) The day laborer crosses me and says thank you for don’t starve me“he claimed.

Although he commented that “herd immunity is an ambitious concept”, the president ventured that as the vaccination process continues to evolve, what will be in Uruguay “is a sharp reduction in the circulation of the virus. .

It is clear that the Uruguayan government’s commitment is to the vaccination campaign, which began on March 1 and is progressing at a good pace. “By mid-July we should have two million Uruguayans with the doses of the vaccines, ”said Lacalle Pou.

Uruguay has already acquired over six million doses covid vaccines, including purchases from Pfizer and Sinovac. It has also compromised the immunizers of the Covax mechanism, through which some 100,000 doses of Astrazeneca have so far arrived.

According to the vaccination monitor of the Ministry of Public Health, 1,807,000 people, i.e. 51.15% of the population, have already received the first dose, while people immunized with two doses represent 29.12% of the population.

Despite advances in vaccination, Uruguay is experiencing a sharp increase in infections and deaths from Covid-19.

In the year 2020, 181 deaths were reported in the country, while in April and May 2021 alone there were 3,302 deaths, the Uruguayan Interdisciplinary Group for Covid data analysis warned this week. -19, a group of scientists who came together to relieve pandemic data. .

On Tuesday, Uruguay’s National Emergency System (Sinae) reported 3,515 new daily cases and 68 deaths by the coronavirus. With these data, the total death toll is 4,342 deaths and 298,006 since the start of the pandemic in this country.

Uruguay, with a population of 3.5 million, remains the country in the world with highest relative death toll due to the virus in the past 14 days, AFP figures show.

With agency information

GRB