Carlos Mellado acknowledges that it will be difficult to vaccinate 70% of the population by summer

Health Secretary Carlos Mellado acknowledged on Monday that it will be “mathematically difficult” to vaccinate COVID-19 in 70% of the population by summer, a number recommended by scientists to achieve so-called herd immunity and that the government he saw it possible to arrive between July and August of this year.

“With 41,450 (dose) it’s hard to reach that goal,” stated the official in reference to the number of first doses that arrive on the island weekly. Of this total, to date, about 11,000 are received directly by the Walgreens pharmacy chain for the inoculation of employees and residents of 1,146 long-term care centers for elderly adults who are part of the 1st phase of vaccination. .

“I would not dare to venture to give a date (projected for herd immunity) because we are waiting for the number of vaccines arriving in Puerto Rico to increase,” he said, leaving open a possibility of achieve the goal, if it significantly increases the amount of vaccine doses Puerto Rico receives. “From 80,000-100,000 vaccines a week would be a reasonable number to be able to move forward,” he estimated.

In December, the assistant general of the Puerto Rico National Guard, General José Juan Reyes, estimated that 70% should be reached “sometime from July to August”.

Faced with this, Mellado has indicated in a press conference that he expects the federal government to increase the number of vaccines that states and territories receive. To date, the island has received 352,050 doses of vaccines, of which 321,965 have been distributed. At the moment, it is not clear how many of these correspond to second doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 209,356 have been administered on the island, but Mellado said suppliers have already administered about 300,000 vaccines.