The Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance received this Wednesday, May 25, a batch of 273,780 doses of the vaccine Pfizerwhich was acquired by direct purchase through the mechanism Covaxand confirmed that the doses will be used for the population 12 years of age and older.
However, despite the arrival of these doses, the country is still waiting for the Modern that they serve so that minors from 6 to 11 years of age complete their vaccination schedule and that pediatric Pfizers arrive in the country to also attend to that target population.
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While this is happening, the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH) It has documented that almost 7 million vaccines against covid-19 have expired at the National Center for Biologicals and another 900,000 will expire in June.
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Health on May 25, it is mentioned that the 273,780 doses of the Pfizer vaccine that arrived in Guatemala this day, arrive to strengthen the National Vaccination Plan against covid-19, as it will be used to the population aged 12 and over, according to their primary immunization schemes against this disease.
He adds that the Pfizer vaccine is suitable for use in rural communities with difficult access, since it is stored at a temperature between 2 to 8 ° C, for at least 30 days, so “it constitutes an important contribution to continue advancing with the process of vaccination in the most distant regions.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, to date Guatemala has administered more than 17 million 350 thousand doses of vaccine against the coronavirus; Around 8,211,000 correspond to first doses and more than 6,200,000 people already have the complete scheme, while progress continues with the placement of booster doses.
To date, 741,859 adolescents have completed the vaccination scheme -two doses-, which represent 34.97% of the total number of Guatemalans between 12 and 17 years of age who must be inoculated against the coronavirus.
Also read: Coronavirus: What is the Covax mechanism and how does it work?
Missing vaccine for second doses
The child population between 6 and 11 years old was the last to enter the National Vaccination Plan and the Government enabled Moderna vaccines to immunize this population group, but only managed to apply the first dose to 494 thousand 043 children of the 2.2 million that must be included.
Zulma CalderonHealth Defender of the Human Rights Ombudsman (PDH), commented that technically there is no indication to restart vaccination schedules for this population group from 6 to 11 years old and that at the time of entering the Moderna vaccines they will have to complete the scheme.
“Unfortunately, we also have no record that this situation has occurred in other countries – that there are no vaccines for second doses – since it has been effectively planned to have the availability of vaccines to complete the schemes,” Calderón commented.
He added that the most difficult thing to assess at this time is how this lack of availability of vaccines and not planning to complete the schemes again hurts and weakens credibility, not only in the vaccine, but also in the authorities of the Ministry of Health.
Also read: In pictures: children return to class under strict biosecurity measures
Almost 7 million vaccines expire
Calderón said that on May 18 they carried out a new supervision of the National Center for Biologicals and the National Immunization Program and found a total of 8,27,000 doses of vaccines in storage, but of that total, only 1,100,000 still had a shelf life. .
That is to say that 6 million 927 thousand doses are already expired and cannot be used.
Calderón pointed out that this means that more than 85% of all the vaccines that exist in the country at the moment, against covid-19, are expired.
“It is a completely unprecedented situation that we have documented, since such a large number of vaccines had never expired in the country, also highlighting that by the end of the month we have about 900,000 AstraZeneca vaccines due and around 204 thousand Pfizer vaccines for the month of June,” said Calderón.
“It is a situation that is taking place every month without the Ministry of Health taking any important action in the face of the serious situation we are facing,” said the PDH Health Defender.
Calderón added that the amount of expired vaccine could increase, because it is estimated that in the health areas of the country there could be around 200,000 more doses.
The official also recalled that since April 8, 2022, there has been no Moderna vaccine and that the children who received the first dose of those batches have been left without coverage.
“Unfortunately, if we add to this the analysis of the low vaccination coverage against covid-19 in the country, we effectively see how there is a failure in the National Vaccination Program,” Calderón said.
He added that at the moment Health has not told them the date of entry of Moderna or Pfizer’s pediatric vaccines while the Government is still finalizing efforts to acquire them.
He added that the group of children under 5 years of age is totally excluded from the National Vaccination Plan, to this must be added and that Health and the State of Guatemala will have to absorb the costs of these more than 7 million vaccines that are in the National Center of Biologicals.
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Health Posture
The Ministry of Health was asked about how much Moderna vaccines could reach to complete the vaccination schedules for children from 6 to 11 years old or the arrival of pediatric Pfizer to also apply to this age group and responded:
“The Ministry of Health continues to work on different ways to achieve the entry into the country of vaccines intended for children between 6 and 11 years of age. Two of these routes are through the Covax mechanism, who are waiting to provide us with the date of entry of the Moderna vaccine in the coming days. Thus, we have also started a process for the acquisition of a pediatric Pfizer vaccine, ”they explained in a written message.
They added that, in addition, the support of friendly countries is being sought for the donation of vaccines for the population.
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