On October 11, the Health authorities officially began the vaccination campaign with the bivalent dose against Covid-19, which contains both the original Wuhan strain and omicron, which allows the population to be protected against infections. new variants that have emerged in recent times.
Since the process began almost exactly six months ago, 2,674,084 people have been immunized with this vaccine, that is, 32.12% of a target population of 8,325,856 individuals. The arrival to the population it has been less fruitful than in the past, with inoculation progress averaging only 5.3% per month.
According to data from the Department of Statistics and Health Information (DEIS) of the Minsal, during the week of March 20 to 26 The campaign increased 51% of vaccinated in those seven days, since 129,259 people were inoculated, 43,000 more than the previous one. This as a consequence of the various operations that the authorities carried out in mass activities, such as soccer matches or the presence in the Tirso de Molina Market.
However, it still isn’t going fast enough. And it is that from March 27 to April 2, 15% fewer individuals were immunized than the previous week. This drop is even more noticeable during the first week of Aprilsince there the decrease was 24% (see graph). That is, Chile accumulates two weeks vaccinating fewer people than the week immediately before. And that’s what’s worrying.
Of course, the measures that the authorities have taken have been noted in immunization rates. For example, during the fifth week of the process, the Minsal announced that the campaign would extend to those over 60 years of age, which increased vaccination by 357%. Then, during the second week of January, they did something similar again, adding those over 50 to the calendar, increasing inoculation by 66%. Today, for example, although the ‘Get vaccinated with the duo’ campaign is still in force, the initial impact that attracted new people to get vaccinated has already settled according to various understandings.
These numbers worry experts and in recent weeks various specialists have pointed out that the bivalent vaccination campaign is going slowly and insist that the health authorities must intensify the call for people to be immunized against Covid-19. Even from the Ministry of Health (Minsal), with Minister Ximena Aguilera at the helm, they have insisted that “we do not trust ourselves, the pandemic is not over yet”, and they have also deployed various operations to encourage inoculation, both against the coronavirus and against influenza.
Given the figures, the infectologist and academic at the San Sebastián University, Loreto Twele, explains that it is necessary to speed up the campaign for several reasons: “One, the vaccine against Covid-19 only protects temporarily, therefore it is important for people to get their booster doses. Second, the other vaccines did not contain the omicron variant, which is the one currently circulating. In addition, we are still in a pandemic and there are still infections and people who die from the infection ”.
In addition, the specialist adds that measures must also be taken to speed up the campaign against influenza, since since it began -on March 16- 2,476,142 people have been immunized out of a target population of 8,884,701.
“This year the vaccination campaign has been much slower and It seems serious to me, because winter is coming and we could have cases of co-infection of Covid-19 with influenza, which generates a serious respiratory condition“, Add Twele.
Meanwhile, the head of the Public Health unit of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Autonomous University, Karla Rubilar, agrees that “it is highly worrying that there is such a low rate of influenza vaccination coverage at this time and also low vaccination coverage for the coronavirus.” For this reason, she adds, “we call for reinforcing risk communication and vaccination strategies in the territories of the entire country.”
Within the target population of the bivalent campaign, the Minsal has been opening the door more and more, especially with regard to age groups. As of today, the people who can be inoculated are those aged 50 or over; health personnel; immunosuppressed from the age of 12 with diagnoses such as patients on dialysis, with cancer undergoing treatment, with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, with solid organ transplantation and with autoimmune diseases receiving biological treatments; chronic users from the age of 12 (lung disease, heart disease, obesity, among them), and prioritized groups of “essential service”, as defined by the authority.
Of these groups, the ones with the most coverage are people over 80 years of age and health personnel, with whom the campaign began. Of the 380,948 health officials have been vaccinated 232,433, that is, 58.82%, while of those over 80, more than 286,000 people (57.74%) are already immunized. On the other hand, Of the 1,057,310 chronic patients that make up the target group, 226,935 have been inoculated (19,51%) (See table).
And if you delve deeper into the numbers, the only three groups that have exceeded 50% of their vaccinated population are people between 70 and 79 years of age, individuals 80 years of age and over, and health personnel.
| Group | Target population | Vaccination rate |
|---|---|---|
| People aged 80 and over | 499.597 | 58,82% |
| People between 70 and 79 years old | 987.099 | 57,74% |
| People between 60 and 69 years | 1.732.048 | 41,58% |
| People between 50 and 59 years old | 2.300.643 | 22,24% |
| Chronic people under 50 years of age | 1.057.310 | 21,46% |
| Health personnel under 50 years of age | 380.948 | 61,01% |
| Prioritized groups under 50 years of age | 1.368.301 | 8,71% |
In this context, the doctor in biological sciences and biochemical academic from San Sebastián University, Claudio Figueroa, stresses that it is important that these groups get immunized as soon as possible: “The importance of vaccinating on this date, before the start of the increase in respiratory diseases, it is giving enough time for our immune system to act against the vaccine and prepare ourselves to endure this time ”.
In addition, he adds that “you have to encourage people to go. It would be good if campaigns or combinations between the public and private system are carried out so that the vaccinations go to the workplace and thus give facilities to people, in this way they can reach the target population much easier ”.
