Despite the fact that vaccination advances in the American continent, coronavirus infections are on the rise, and this Friday they reached 98 million, while deaths already total 2.3 million. The United States, Canada, Panama, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay are the countries that are currently presenting an increase in cases of this disease.
Bogotá, December 17 (EFE) .- America reached 1,410 million vaccines applied since the inoculation process began on the continent, where, however, this year the coronavirus cases to add 98 million this Friday. This and other news are the keys from vaccination this week in America:
1.- VACCINATION ADVANCES BUT THE VIRUS DOES NOT STOP
The vaccination has advanced in America to reach the one thousand 410 million of injected preparations, according to the most recent data from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The international body specified that, to date, 607 million people have completed their vaccination schedule.
On the continent, 693 million people currently have one dose and 570 million have received both doses of the different vaccines authorized. In addition, 33 million people were inoculated with single-dose vaccines. Although the numbers are encouraging, the virus does not seem to stop.
This is demonstrated when it is known that today there are 98 million from COVID-19 cases Y 2.3 million dead in this region, and that the number of infected is increasing again in the United States, Canada, Panama, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay.
2.- EU PREFERRED PFIZER AND MODERN, BUT…
An advisory committee to the Centers for Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday to make it clear that the doses of Pfizer and Moderna are preferable over those of Johnson & Johnson (Janssen).
The assessors supported a recommendation that “messenger RNA vaccines are preferred over the Janssen vaccine for those over 18 years of age” after hearing new data indicating that a rare blood clot syndrome is more common among people who have recently received that injection.
However, this Friday Pfizer said that on the contrary its double-dose vaccines were not proving effective in studies conducted for children between the ages of 2 and 5 and that it will now try adding a third dose to increase that effectiveness.
3.- POLEMIC IN BRAZIL OVER IMMUNIZATION OF CHILDREN
The National Sanitary Surveillance Agency (Anvisa, sanitary regulator) authorized this week the use of the vaccine from the Pfizer laboratory with children between five and 11 years old. Despite the approval of the regulator, the Ministry of Health so far has not announced when it will begin to vaccinate them or if it has enough doses of Pfizer to include them in the immunization campaign or will have to purchase more vaccines.
“There are no serious adverse reports, of concern, or reports related to very serious cases or mortality due to the use of the vaccine compared to placebo,” said Gustavo Mendes, general manager of Medicines and Biological Products of Anvisa.
In response, the President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, one of the world leaders most skeptical of the severity of the pandemic, attacked the health technicians who approved the vaccine on Thursday and asked that their names be disclosed.
“I asked, unofficially, the name of the people who approved the vaccine for children from five years old, we want to disclose the names of those people so that the whole world knows who those people are and, obviously, form their judgment” Bolsonaro declared. Brazil, the second country with the most deaths and the third with the most COVID-19 infections globally, accumulates 22 million 204 thousand 941 cases and 617 thousand 395 deaths.
4.- DONATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA CONTINUE
Cooperation among Latin American countries continues to try to ensure that those of low and middle income can vaccinate as many people as possible. In this way, it was known that Argentina will donate A million of vaccines AstraZenaca a Bolivia, an amount that makes it the largest donation of doses between countries in South America since the declaration of the pandemic.
Likewise, on Thursday the Ministry of Public Health of Ecuador received one million vaccines from AstraZeneca donated by the Government of Mexico through a joint solidarity cooperation initiative with Argentina.
According to the ministry, so far 26.4 million vaccines have been applied in Ecuador, of which 13.5 million correspond to first doses, 12.1 million to second applications and more than 750 thousand to booster doses.
5.- IN SOUTH AMERICA THERE ARE MORE VACCINES AND MORE REACTIVATION
The Governments of Colombia and Ecuador approved this Friday the vaccination certificates, which will allow better mobility after the opening of the Rumichaca bridge, the main passage between the two countries, which was closed by the pandemic.
The certificates, which can be read with a QR code on any mobile device, will have basic information on citizens such as the name and surname of the bearer, the doses of vaccines that have been applied to them and the laboratories where the serums come from.
Also, a campaign against the COVID-19 in Bolivia he resorted to various Christmas characters to promote the vaccination minors between five and 11 years old, something that not even the “Grinch” could avoid no matter how much he wanted to since he ended up receiving one of the doses.
The municipal hospital of La Portada in La Paz this Friday enabled the “Santa Claus office” after a well received call by social networks to arrive with games and the delivery of some gifts to minors suitable for vaccination.
The Government ordered from the previous week the extension of vaccination to children between the ages of five and 11, a task that has achieved that some 73 thousand 384 doses are applied in the country precisely for that population.
