The Secretary of the Department of Health, Carlos Mellado, Has acknowledged today that it will be “difficult” to vaccinate the 70% of the population for late summer due to the low dose flow the country has received.
During a press conference, the official indicated that, at the time, the country receives some 41,450 vaccines against the COVID-19[feminine setmanalment, de manera que serà costa amunt immunitzar el 70% de la població. Aquesta xifra és la recomanada per experts i organitzacions salubristes per assolir una immunitat de ramat o col·lectiva.
“No m’atreviria a aventurar-me a donar una data perquè estem a l’espera com els altres estats que augmenti la quantitat de vacunes a Puerto Rico. I això pogués canviar en la mesura que vagi augmentant la quantitat. Ara mateix, matemàticament és difícil de veritat “, va dir Mellado. Al desembre, el general José Juan Reyes va estimar que, entre juliol i agost, esperaven vacunar el 70% de la població.
Va admetre que, tot i que desconeix quan s’augmentarà la quantitat de vacunes que rebrà l’illa, esperen que això passi a finals de febrer.
Fins a la data, el funcionari ha indicat que s’han distribuït unes 321,955 vacunes distribuïdes al voltant de l’illa. Mentre que el país ha rebut unes 352,050 vacunes.
“Amb 41,050 [vacunas] it is difficult to reach this goal and more so when we know that in this phase of 65 years or more we have more than 600,000 patients and we are still running the phases of the first responders who are also being taken in the centers. We also have the teachers, “he said, adding that a flow of just over 80,000-90,000 vaccines weekly to achieve collective immunity by the end of summer.
Mellado could not specify how many people aged 65 or over have been vaccinated so far. He indicated that about 600,000 people in Puerto Rico are between the ages of 65 or older.
For his part, Mellado has indicated that they seek to increase vaccination among people aged 65 and over, so they plan to reduce the margin of vaccines distributed by first responders and educators.
“What we have talked about is to reduce the margin of the number of vaccines a little bit. To this day, this week we did not have to do it to retain these 7,000 vaccines which we will use in the 196 centers“, Added.
The official noted that as of this week, some 7,000 vaccines will be distributed to the National Guard for the inoculation of about 196 aegis and care centers that may have been left out of the vaccination led by pharmaceutical companies Walgreens and CVS to these facilities.
Mellado has even noted that Walgreens and CVS began vaccinating people 65 and older in their pharmacies even though those institutions have not culminated in vaccination in long-term care centers. The official indicated that Walgreens, since last Friday, have been vaccinated in 1,970 patients, While CVS – those who started on Thursday – have been vaccinated in 350 patients. Mellado also indicated that the College of Surgeons has been vaccinated 531 patients beds that are not found in long-term care centers.
Mellado, in turn, said that all municipalities on the island have a vaccination center. However, in the face of complaints about lack of vaccines in municipalities in the center of the island, the official argued that, due to insufficient vaccines, they have provided only 300 doses to each of these vaccination centers. .
“The number of vaccines has had to be reduced. Many of them want me to give them 400 and 500 vaccines and I can’t. I can’t deliver more than 300 vaccines per center. We can’t do that because there are 41,450 vaccines. [semanales], If all peoples through the [Centros] 330 particularly Naranjito … and the Integral Mountain Health Center, receive vaccines. It’s not the amount they might want to have, because we can’t give it to them, “the secretary said at the end of the conference.