With the arrival of new doses, Chile further accelerates its vaccination campaign and Sebastián Piñera promises “full coverage” for June

Chile received a new shipment of 1.5 million Sinovac vaccines to continue the vaccination process in the country and clarify the “full coverage” that the authorities have assured will be met in June of this year.

The Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, was present at the arrival of this new batch of vaccines, and stressed that the shipment will speed up the campaign over the next two weeks, including healthy adults aged 44 to 35.

In total, according to Minister Paris, There are over 17 million doses Chile has received since it started its mass vaccination plan, last February. “We have reached the sum of 15 million doses of Sinovac vaccine, plus 2.5 million from Pfizer and 158,000 from Astrazeneca. As a result, 17,719,476 doses of vaccine have already arrived in Chile, ”said the Secretary of State.

For the above, It should be added that Chile recently concluded a new agreement to acquire 3 million additional doses of Sinovac vaccines.. With that, the country has agreements or contracts for 40 million doses of vaccine to continue your vaccination process.

“This responds to our intention of obviously vaccinating 80% of the susceptible population by the end of June., making available to Chileans who wish to vaccinate a sufficient quantity of vaccines, ”added Paris.

Until this Tuesday, vaccination figures in Chile indicate that 8,137,185 people were vaccinated with the first dose, while 6737196 completed the process with their second dose. The total doses administered to the population are 14,874,381 vaccines.

Vaccination of the young population

From this Monday, the Chilean vaccination schedule has stepped on the accelerator after a series of reviews of declining immunization rates, where it was said that the target of 15 million vaccinated Chileans It would not be for June, as the government has promised, but rather for September.

In addition, the hospitalization of the young population aged 18 to 59 has reached worrying figures in the past month. From April 4 to 10, for example, 71% of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions were for people aged 20 to 59.

Faced with these two scenarios, the Chilean government announced the unprecedented measure of vaccinating the adult population aged 44 to 35 in just two weeks.

That is why from Monday to Friday, the population between 44 and 40 years old you will need to go to vaccination centers across the country be vaccinated with the first dose against the coronavirus. In parallel, the schedule will continue with inoculation for those receiving the second doseas well as pregnant women and latecomers aged 45 and over.

For next week the schedule will continue with inoculation for the population between 39 and 35 years old. This new cycle of vaccination for the young population should end on Friday, May 14 one day before the start of the Chilean mega-election scheduled for Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 May, where future mayors, councilors, regional councilors will be elected by popular vote, and to the 155 conventional constituents who will have to draft a possible new constitution for Chile.

“Today we want to ratify a commitment that we made the day we proposed to postpone the elections, which must reach May 15 and 16 with 7 million people vaccinated with its 2 doses,” said President Piñera .

Upcoming vaccines

Following this latest shipment of 1.5 million Sinovac vaccines, doses are expected to continue to arrive in the country in the future. Following the first arrival of the first 158,400 AstraZeneca vaccines in April, it is estimated that between May and June, other shipments from this laboratory will land until the completion of the 818,400 vaccines committed under the Covax mechanism.

As, CanSino lab prepares to start shipping 1.8 million doses to Chile, which only require one inoculation. While advanced negotiations are maintained with the Russian laboratory which produces the Sputnik V vaccine, and it is estimated that the first drugs will arrive in the country in June.

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