Guatemala, Mar 5 (Prensa Latina) Criticism of the ongoing anti-Covid-19 vaccination plan and protests by doctors for lack of medicines and supplies, stood out in the news week that closes today in Guatemala.
A year after immunization against the disease began here (currently it covers people over 12 years of age), the controversy returned to the forefront of the media not only because of the low coverage figures, but also because of the expiration of more than one million of Russian Sputnik V vaccines, of the first and second components.
Last Monday, the Parliamentary Opposition Group visited the facilities of the National Center for Biologicals, where it verified what was already expected, since it had been in the public domain for weeks.
The worst thing, they said, is that another similar figure can also be lost this month, at a time when the Covid-19 traffic light keeps 224 municipalities out of 340 red (maximum alert), another 112 are orange (high alert) and daily infections are close to four thousand.
According to the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance (Mspas), the distrust of Guatemalans, mainly in rural areas and with indigenous populations, led to the expiration of the vaccines, despite last-minute efforts to bring them closer to the communities.
However, experts and independent organizations such as Data GT Laboratory point out among the causes a deficient information campaign, without cultural or linguistic belonging, which now leaves all the responsibility on the population.
In the midst of criticism and in the face of urgency, the Portfolio began what it called “business vaccination” this week, in search of institutions that require biologicals after coordination through the platform vaccinia.gob.gt.
Coma himself attended the launch of the new strategy, after acknowledging that at least seven million people do not have protection against the disease, which already leaves 789 thousand 354 accumulated cases and 17 thousand 45 deaths, this last figure the highest of Central America.
The Health authorities also face a complex scenario, after the decision of a group of doctors from the San Juan de Dios General Hospital to take to the streets to protest the center’s shortage of basic medicines and obsolete equipment as a result. of the historical neglect of successive governments in office.
Their demands reached the Health Commission of Congress, the Mspas itself and finally President Alejandro Giammattei in an open letter where they ask for his intervention to put an end to the cyclical crises of the hospital and ask him to approve a Decree called “Zero Never Again” .
According to the doctors, it is a tradition that the patient’s family must spend money to acquire the hospital’s shortages and unfortunately many do not have the purchasing power to face these expenses, they denounced.
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