Ecuador announced on Tuesday that it will apply a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to health personnel until December while it advances in the immunization of young people from the age of 12 and the laggards.
The Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, said at a press conference on Tuesday that “the third doses are scheduled for those who received their first dose in January, it is the front-line health personnel.”
He added that the eventual application of a third dose for the entire population and the immunization of children six years and older will be analyzed later, for which the country has a sufficient stock of vaccines.
Garzón said that community immunity has not yet been achieved “because that immunity is achieved when 85% of the population is covered and for that we have the necessary amount of vaccines until the end of the year.”
Ecuador is carrying out an aggressive vaccination plan that made it possible to supply two doses to 10.7 million people. Ecuador has a total population of almost 17.4 million citizens.
As a result of the massive immunization, the minister pointed out that “we are very happy, we have seen how at the national level they are reporting to us that hospital units are decongesting and in many places they are even closing the COVID rooms” and are being transformed for the care for other pathologies.
Since the start of the pandemic in February last year, Ecuador has registered a total of 505,278 infected and 32,448 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Science and Systems Engineering.
Ecuador is supplying AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinovac and Cansino vaccines, this last single dose.
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