The Secretary of Health, Carlos Mellado, Said that Puerto Rico is one of the jurisdictions in the United States that is most efficiently administering vaccines against Covid-19, Arguing that more than 80% of the doses received have already been distributed. This, although it was confirmed yesterday that about 200 vaccines were lost.
According to information provided by the official, 221,426 of the 270,050 vaccines received have been distributed to vaccination centers on the island. Until yesterday, the administration of 136,682 vaccines had been registered, a higher number than that reported by the portal of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Which indicates that in Puerto Rico barely 104,137 of the 311,325 that have been “distributed” have been used.
“I had conversations with HHS (Federal Department of Health) and the people of the CDC and establish that Puerto Rico is one of the first places, territories where vaccines are not being stored. What we have in storage is what arrived Thursday for the second dose of the first phase. If you analyze the refrigerators of the National Guard there are no vaccines, “Mellado told a news conference yesterday.
Drawing on data from the CDC and those offered separately by the territories, a Bloomberg media collection places Puerto Rico as the jurisdiction with the tenth lowest percentage of vaccines administered, only above states such as North Carolina, Hawaii and Alabama, as well as the territories of the Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Palau, Virgin Islands, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands. In the compilation of the American medium, the data for Puerto Rico are the same as those that appear on the CDC portal.
At the moment, the Department of Health lack of a ‘dashboard’ detailing the development of the vaccination process.
According to Bloomberg, North Dakota is the state that has most efficiently administered its vaccines, having used 77.1% of those allocated to it. In the case of Puerto Rico, the figure is 50.6%, based on the numbers provided by Mellado.
Mellado noted that the nearly 50,000 vaccines that have not been distributed in Puerto Rico are assigned primarily to the second dose of people who received the first in late December.
In recent weeks, both Mellado and José Reyes, Head of the National Guard, have stressed that the CDC reports late data. Mellado also argued that the number of vaccines the CDC reports as “distributed” for each jurisdiction includes doses that have not yet arrived.
The Secretary of Health has stressed that the possibility of Puerto Rico covering the so-called herd immunity – so it is required to vaccinate at least 70% of the population – in the summer, which will depend on the amount of dose weekly assigned by the CDC. In this regard, he alluded to the promise of the president-elect, Joe Biden, To dramatically liberalize the flow of vaccines, so he expects that in early February the number of vaccines distributed weekly will significantly exceed the approximately 40,000 that reach it. Of these 40,000, 11,000 are earmarked for the Walgreens and CVS pharmacy chains, which are responsible for vaccinating older adults in long-term care centers.
The former state epidemiologist angels RodriguezHowever, he expressed concern about the risks that the Biden administration’s flexibility plan could pose, particularly with regard to the possibility that there may not be enough to apply the second dose required for each person who is immunized with the vaccine. of Pfizer or of Modern.
“To me it’s nonsense. I want to think that someone sensible will recommend in time not to do this. The scientific evidence of these two vaccines shows that their success in protecting 94% or 95% of vaccinated people depends of the ‘booster’ (second dose) If we do not give this second ‘booster’ we lose the first.After some time the person will not have enough protection.It is an initiative that will fail.I hope that the new administration federal) does not do it, and if they do, as vaccination depends on the states, Puerto Rico should not do it, “said the infectologist.
The second dose of the Pfizer vaccine should be given 21 days after the first, while in the case of Moderna the interval is 28 days.
Complicated return to face-to-face classes
Rodriguez also called for “rethinking” the aspiration to gradually reopen schools from March, as expressed by the governor Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia.
“Probably all the decisions that were based on getting a security, in quotes, to be able to avoid contagions in the classrooms, I think they have to be rethought. We are at a time that is probably critical. A strain is circulating that is extremely “If we do not want to collapse the health system, we must be very careful to strictly adhere to the recommendations to prevent transmission,” said Rodriguez, who said the government has a job suitable for the initial vaccination phase.
According to Mellado, the vaccination process for teaching and non-teaching staff in public and private schools, which began this week, will last for “six to eight weeks,” which would mean ending between early and mid-March.
“The process of teachers and non-teachers, who are 55,000, between public and private, I understand not (it would be delayed by the slow flow of vaccines). The detail was in how many people, how many employees want to access the vaccine. The plan of the opening of the classes will depend on many factors.What we have always wanted to set is a one-time goal.If we do not have something as a goal, we will never be able to do it, and (back to school) depends on many factors and how we are facing Covid at that moment, “Mellado said.
On the other hand, Mellado denied that the loss of 200 doses of Moderna to a vaccination center is part of a pattern in vaccine handling in Puerto Rico. The secretary did not want to specify at which vaccination center the incident took place, beyond pointing out that it is a place that “is doing a very good job”. Mellado was not available to answer Metro questions, despite arrangements since the early hours of the morning.
“What happened was that the person who received the vaccine box saw that there was ice on it. What he did was he put the box inside the fridge. When he was consulted at the “The CDC’s recommendation was that we not use the vaccine. I have to clarify that this is the only incident that Puerto Rico has. There was a state that had up to 2,500 doses of loss,” Mellado said in a conference of the Secretary of the Interior in Fortaleza.
“These are things that can and have happened. The handling of this vaccine is extremely complicated. Even when the second dose arrives it has to be managed in a different way,” he added.