The massive vaccination plan that is being carried out in Ecuador has generated in recent weeks a decrease in the demand for hospital beds and intensive care for patients infected with COVID-19, the Minister of Health said on Tuesday.
At a press conference, Minister Ximena Garzón – who announced that the country will apply a third dose to immunosuppressed patients – said that doctors dedicated to treating the pandemic are seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel” because in July there was an occupation of about 75% of hospital beds nationwide for COVID patients which in August dropped to 30%.
In the case of beds in intensive care units, last month there was 80% occupancy and so far this month it has dropped to 77%.
“This means that hospital beds are being freed to attend to other pathologies that have been neglected and have not been able to be treated due to lack of capacity in hospital facilities. This is good news, “he said.
This effect is the product of the massive vaccination plan of the government of President Guillermo Lasso, in power since the end of May, who in the electoral campaign had promised to immunize nine million people in his first 100 days in office.
He stated that this result has been possible “with the support of private companies, universities, and the armed forces, which have been a very important pillar in fulfilling the plan.”
Ecuador registers a total of 9.96 million citizens who have received one dose, while 4.78 million already have two doses, out of a total population of 17.3 million. On Tuesday, inmates of state prisons began to be vaccinated with the Cansino vaccine, which is a single dose.
Regarding the third dose, Garzón pointed out that “at an international level it is proven that people who have some type of immunodeficiency are going to have to receive a third dose, that is evidenced and we will also do it here in the country.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Ecuador has registered more than 493,700 infections and 31,870 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Science and Systems Engineering.
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