Santiago de Chile, Aug 1 (EFE) .- The Chilean Minister of Health, María Begoña Yarza, confirmed this Monday the “universal” administration of a fifth dose of vaccine against covid-19, without specifying when its inoculation will begin.
“No one could think that we are not going to vaccinate more from covid-19 (…) Chile is the only country that will have a universal fifth dose. The rest of the countries do not have it,” confirmed Yarza during an intervention in the Chamber of the deputies.
The head of the health portfolio added that the next dose will probably arrive in 2023, since after the fourth injection “a better immune response is seen” and it is not so urgent to be vaccinated in less than six months with respect to the dose. previous.
With the third vaccine, “the response started to fall off at six months,” he explained, but with the fourth, “immunity is lasting longer.”
In Chile, one of the fastest countries in the world to vaccinate against covid-19, 87% have received a booster dose and 68% have received a fourth injection.
In parallel, it is one of the countries that maintains the most sanitary measures in the region, with a mandatory mask in closed spaces and a card that requires you to have four doses to be able to access the interior of bars, restaurants and other leisure activities.
Since the start of the pandemic, the country has experienced three long quarantines and several periods of border closure for tourists – the last lasted for 6 months, in 2021.
Last April, the use of masks outdoors as well as vaccination against covid-19 and the performance of a PCR test for foreigners entering the country were no longer required.
The most widely used vaccine is CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac -which this year established its first packaging plant in Latin America in Chile-, although Pfizer/BioNtech, AstraZeneca and Cansino are also administered to a lesser extent.
Despite the effective immunization campaign, cases have increased by 16% in the last week, adding 6,286 new infections and 45 new deaths in the last 24 hours, according to figures from the Ministry of Health.
The pandemic leaves a total balance of 59,622 deaths and 4.2 million cases since March 2020.
(c) EFE Agency
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