Page Seven Digital
To date, 6.7 million schoolchildren and adults have received the complete vaccination schedule, a figure that represents 57% of the country’s total population. This figure is obtained more than two years after the pandemic and with the rate of 0.7%, the lowest in this time.
“After the decline of the fourth wave, the lethality decreased and the population is beginning to have more confidence and not have biosecurity measures. This is serious because we are going to have vulnerable parts”, declared the former Minister of Health and current Secretary of Health of the Mayor’s Office of Cercado, Anibal Cruz.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, to date the first doses have been applied to 8.5 million inhabitants, which represents 72% of the population. Instead, the figure drops to 57% for the full scheme. The expert considered that the figures are still low, considering that the country will enter winter where Covid-19 can be confused with other diseases such as: common flu, influenza, H1N1. “If we are not well immunized, we will surely have a fifth wave,” he warned.
The aerologist and director of the Children’s Hospital, Alfredo Mendoza, said that one of the problems is the poor performance in immunization. “We are one of the few countries in Latin America that has low levels of vaccination. We barely reached 50% and we did not see adequate strategies to combat misinformation from anti-vaccine groups, ”he maintained.
In the two years of the pandemic, Mendoza said that Bolivia has the “weakest” health system in the region. He hopes that the Government promotes vaccination campaigns showing the safety and effectiveness of the doses.
If the level of vaccination is divided by age groups, the one with the highest percentage of immunization is that of 18 years of age and older. The report from the Ministry of Health shows that 78% of the elderly have the complete scheme and 95% have at least the first dose.
In contrast, the levels of immunization in minors is much lower. Only 33% of students received the full anticovid vaccination schedule. According to the epidemiological report issued by the Ministry of Health, to date one million students between the ages of five and 17 have been immunized with both doses. This figure is equivalent to 33% of the three million children and adolescents who live in the country. In contrast, the first dose reached 1.4 million schoolchildren, equivalent to 48%.
–
