Vaccination tourism: who can receive it in Chile?

SANTIAGO.- Chile announced on Wednesday the modification of its criteria coronavirus vaccination for foreigners, reserve vaccination only for those are residents or have initiated the visa application, Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand reported.

The measure aims to avoid the so-called “vaccine tourism” after a report from a Peruvian television station aired in the country which explained that for around $ 1,000 you could travel to Chile and receive the vaccine, where it is free and voluntary.

“Foreigners who are in the country on a tourist visa will not have the right to be vaccinated in Chile. They will not have the right either foreigners who are like tourists, but that they come from a country whose visa is not required ”, explained the Minister.

“Thirdly, foreigners who are in the country in an irregular situation, but who have not started the procedures for applying for a temporary or permanent visa, will not be vaccinated either,” he added.

The resolution signed by the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, establishes that the target population living in Chile must be vaccinated, ie “those who have the disease. Chilean nationality, permanent stay, resident visa, student visa or visa under contract, or those who have a request for temporary or permanent visa entered for processing ”, indicates the document according to Emol.

The document determines that those “who are temporarily in the country exclusively on a tourist visa” are not part of the population to be vaccinated.

The Faculty of Medicine for its part called for “not to limit vaccination” to people in an irregular situation in Chile, as this “will affect migrants in a more vulnerable state and threaten the health of the entire population”.

On its Twitter account, the medical union added that “there are other more humane ways to limit“ vaccine tourism. ”The government’s goal is to vaccinate five million people by the end of March and reach 15 million (out of nearly 19 million inhabitants of the country, according to the latest projections) by the end of June.

Chile, which in six days inoculated at least one dose of the vaccine to more than a million people, initially envisaged the vaccination of any citizen in its territory and belonging to the groups established in the national calendar of vaccination.

Chile began immunizing its health workers on December 24, when it received a first batch of vaccines from Pfizer / BioNtech against the coronavirus, which has already infected more than 760,000 people and exceeds 19,000 deaths in the country. The Chilean government has made deals to purchase around 36 million doses from Pfizer, Sinovac, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. For the moment there is no pact with Moderna and further advances with the Russians are not excluded. Sputnik V.

Agencia AFP

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