The Ecuadorian government will expand the vaccination group to young people between 12 and 15 years olds, said on Thursday the Deputy Minister of Governance and Health Surveillance, José Ruales, who confirmed that in recent days the country has registered a shortage of Sinovac immunizers after transportation problems from China.
Speaking to a local digital portal, he stated that around September 6 or 7 “We will start vaccination in this 12-15 year-old group. This will be done in September and October, according to availability, with the progressive arrival of this vaccine, Pfizer “.
“Once the Pfizer studies are presented and approved in the United States, and there is an external analysis by the World Health Organization, we will incorporate criteria to vaccinate children under 12 years of age”, he expressed.
Regarding an eventual third dose for Ecuadorians, Ruales said that before making decisions Ecuador is reviewing the analyzes of other countries such as Chile and Israel, who plan to vaccinate people over 55 years and 60 years respectively, although in both cases it will be done with those with pre-existing diseases.
On lack of Sinovac immunizers, registered since Wednesday, stated that it has been caused by a 72-hour delay in shipping from China due to the internal problems and suspension of commercial flights, but anticipated that they have confirmed that two million doses will be delivered on Saturday and another two million on August 21.
“It has been necessary to reschedule the vaccination from Monday and then we will continue normally”, he stressed. He added that out of a total of 12.4 million Ecuadorians over 16 years of age have received the first dose, around 10 million, while 3.8 million have the complete picture.
On the other hand, the Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, recognized that the variants alpha, delta and gamut of COVID-19 are of community contagion in the country, so he asked the population for “patience and discipline” to avoid applying more severe epidemiological measures.
In a press conference, in which the president of the National Emergency Operations Committee (COE) also participated, Juan Zapata, the Health official, explained that there is 187 cases of the alpha variant distributed in 19 provinces, 179 of the delta in 12 provinces and 178 of the range in 19 jurisdictions of this type.
Garzón assured that the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) has had “a great success in controlling the spread of the pandemic”however, he noted that “by the time the outbreaks get out of hand, there will be no moderate or mild epidemiological measures that can contain them. “
Since the start of the pandemic at the end of February last year, Ecuador has registered 493,148 cases and 31,837 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Science and Systems Engineering.
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