America Writing, Jan 7 (EFE) .- Vaccination in America this Friday was close to 1,500 million anticovid doses administered at a time when the omicron variant makes the governments analyze the implementation of new and rigorous measures to stop the infections and avoid going back to the dreaded closures at all costs.
These and other keys to vaccination marked the week in America.
VACCINATION DOES NOT STOP BUT THE VIRUS NEITHER
According to the count of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), to date 1,482 million doses have been applied in America.
Of these, 629 million people have the complete guideline.
Likewise, PAHO specifies that 706 million inhabitants have received the first dose and 599 million the second.
Meanwhile, 30 million got the single-dose vaccine.
Despite the fact that the vaccination process advances, the coronavirus is not far behind and, to date, on the continent there are 107,842,650 people who have contracted the disease and 2,419,695 deaths as a result of the disease.
VACCINATION MANDATES EVALUATED IN USA
The Supreme Court of the United States evaluated this Friday the future of the covid-19 vaccination mandates of President Joe Biden, which together would affect some 100 million people.
In two hearings, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court was skeptical of Biden’s rule to vaccinate the largest number of employees of private companies in the country, and expressed a little more affinity with another measure aimed at some health workers.
The first of these mandates, which would force employees of all companies with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or to present negative results of covid-19 tests weekly, will probably begin to be implemented in February, unless the Supreme Court stops it. .
Several business groups and 27 states led by conservatives have sued the Biden administration to overturn the measure, which would affect some 80 million workers, more than two-thirds of the country’s workforce.
The Biden administration estimates that his term would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations in just six months.
In a second hearing, the Supreme Court heard arguments about another mandate from Biden to vaccinate employees at more than 50,000 U.S. health facilities, those that receive federal subsidies from the Medicare or Medicaid programs, and where they work. 17 million people.
WHAT ABOUT MINORS?
Classes for all fiscal institutions in Ecuador are suspended from January 10 to 16 due to the increase in covid-19 cases, which has also motivated teachers who have received the second dose five months ago to advance vaccination with the third dose.
This was reported by the Emergency Operations Committee while warning of a spike in infections that could reach 10,000 by the end of the week.
From today on, those who have had their second dose five months ago and not six as established will be able to be vaccinated.
Also, the United States Government urged to vaccinate children over 5 years of age due to the rise in hospitalizations of minors due to the advance of the omicron variant.
About 1,000 children were hospitalized in the United States on Wednesday as a result of the virus, a record number of daily admissions for child patients since the start of the pandemic.
For its part, Panama began pediatric vaccination targeting 522,198 children between 5 and 11 years old.
The Ministry of Health, which currently has 60,000 of the 1.5 million doses ordered from Pfizer, expects to immunize 25,400 minors of those ages.
MORE VACCINES WILL BE MADE IN BRAZIL
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the largest health research center in Latin America and which produces in Brazil with imported supplies the vaccine against covid-19 developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, was authorized to continue producing it with totally Brazilian.
Until this Friday, 144 million Brazilians, 67.6% of the population, had the complete immunization schedule (the two doses or the single-dose vaccine).
Despite the above, Brazil is the second country in the world in number of deaths after the United States, with almost 620,000 victims, and the third in infections after the United States and India, with about 22.4 million cases.
FOURTH DOSE IN CHILE
Chile took another step to protect the population by announcing that it will begin to apply the fourth dose of the vaccine next Monday to immunosuppressed people and from February 7 to those over 55 who have completed six months since their previous injection.
After the return of the Christmas holidays, Chile registered 3,134 new cases this Thursday, the highest number since the beginning of July.
Chile, where the pandemic has caused 1.8 million infections and more than 39,200 deaths, has carried out one of the most successful inoculation campaigns on the planet, with more than 92% of the population (19 million inhabitants) with a complete two-dose or single-dose vaccination scheme with more than 11.3 million booster doses administered.
MANDATORY PUNCTURE IN PANAMA
This week it was also known that vaccination against covid will be mandatory for officials in Panama, at a time when the country is experiencing a fourth wave evidenced in an explosion of new daily cases driven by the omicron variant.
Any official who is not vaccinated “will have to present a negative test every Monday to his immediate boss or to Human Resources,” said Health Minister Luis Francisco Sucre.
This announcement took place a day after the Ministry of Health established as a complete vaccination scheme three doses of immunizer against covid -before there were two-, a measure that will take effect on January 28, according to the minister.
Until this Wednesday, 6,380,653 doses have been applied in Panama, the vast majority from the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the rest from the British AstraZeneca.
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