Health inaugurates the “VacuCenter” to advance the registration of vaccines against COVID-19 on the island

The Department of Health in conjunction with the Office of Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service (PRITS) inaugurated this Monday its “VacuCenter”, a center dedicated to the manual entry of data of people vaccinated against COVID-19 on the island and will provide the information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The intention is to collaborate with vaccine providers in entering data from the records of vaccinated people to close the numerical gap between the number of vaccines received, administered and registered”, Said Governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia, during a press conference at the Convention Center, where the “VacuCenter” will be located.

According to the CDC database, Puerto Rico has received 1,439,970 vaccines, of which 748,875 have been administered, making Puerto Rico one of the lowest-rated U.S. jurisdictions. vaccination. But Health has argued that in reality this number is larger and that the difference between the ranges is due to a significant delay in the entry of vaccinated people data by providers, a process that is manual.

The designated Secretary of Health, Carlos Mellado, also argued that in addition to about 150 suppliers who have agreements with the agency for the administration of COVID-19 vaccines on the island, there are other entities that receive doses of drugs directly, through a contract with the government, such as Walgreens and CVS pharmacies, about 70 community pharmacies, Costco, Walmart and the federal prison, entities responsible for recording the data for people who are vaccinated .

About 100,000 weekly doses are currently arriving on the island, of which 80,000 are distributed by Health. “From now on, the effort is being made, talking to each provider so that all the data can be entered quickly,” underline Mellado.

The “VacuCenter” has received mainly the registration documents of people vaccinated in mass events, such as those carried out by the VOICE Vaccination Coalition and the National Guard. At the center there are about 250 people working and the goal is to reach 300. The total cost of the project, said Enrique Völckers Nin, director of PRITS, is about $ 700,000.

“The goal is to be able to enter 10,000 records a day. By the end of the week we will be closing the gap quite a bit,” said Völckers Nin, while saying that the ultimate goal is to digitize the entire vaccine data entry process. .