12:01 AM
A batch of 502,200 bivalent vaccines – which protect against the original strain and against the variant known as omicron – would be about to be lost in the country, which would be added to the 7.8 million doses that were lost between February 2022 and August 2023.
The complaint by representative to the Chamber Andrés Forero (Democratic Center) indicates that this batch of biological products arrived at the Bogotá Free Trade Zone between September 28 and October 2 of this year in five shipments that totaled 757,400. The first of 174,150 doses, the second of 81,050, the third of 10,100, the fourth of 56,700 and the last of 435,400.
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The worrying thing about this fact, according to what the Ministry of Health itself expressed in a response to the congressman, is that 66.3% have an expiration date in December: between the 16th and 25th of that month. The other 255,200 expire between January 23 and 26, 2024. Dates that mean that the December ones would have to be applied in less than two months and the January ones would have to be applied in three months.
It is as if from today, the Government has between 43 and 52 days to apply between 11,679 and 9,657 doses per day. And for those that expire next year, between 81 and 84 days to give the remaining 255 thousand: which would mean giving between 3,150 and 3,038 vaccines daily.
But there is more. Forero adds that despite this panorama of possible loss of bivalent biologicals for covid-19, the Government has not started the immunization plan for the population and has not even published the resolution to carry it out on its website.
In fact, on the site where the Ministry uploads the resolutions it issues, there is none that talks about the allocation of doses of coronavirus vaccines. The most recent ones there date from last June and July.
This represents a failure on the part of the Ministry in the response it gave to the representative to the House regarding that resolution, since it stated that it would publish it in the first week of November 2023. But nothing of that.
In addition, the entity stated that “the advertising campaign to be carried out to inform the population about bivalent vaccination is in the design phase”, as well as that said campaign “must begin in November with prior approval from the technical area.” But it didn’t start either.
“Really, the lack of planning and management of the national government in matters of health is alarming. We saw how it took practically a year and two months for these vaccines to arrive, which had been contracted by the previous government,” said representative Andrés Forero.
Likewise, he added that “now that they have arrived we see that there is still no clear protocol and there is no vaccination plan, with the risk that they will expire.” “I ask the Government to accelerate the management because human lives depend on it,” he said.
According to the epidemiological surveillance portal of the National Institute of Health, the evolution of covid-19 infections during this year shows that 31,843 were registered, of which 1,384 are active, 230 required hospitalization and 19 had to be admitted to units. intensive care.
On the other hand, reports indicate that there were 547 deaths between January 1 and October 28, which indicates a mortality rate of 1.08%. The last person who died dates back to October 10. The population most affected by the virus were adults over 80 years of age, who represented 53% of the deaths; followed by people between 70 and 79 years old, who accounted for 24%; and by those between 60 and 69 years old, who contributed 11.9% of the deaths.
The areas with the most fatal cases are Bogotá with 144 deaths, Medellín with 57, Cali with 38, Bucaramanga with 26 and Barranquilla with 15.
“The question remains as to how many of the 529 fatal cases from Covid-19 this year would have been avoided with a more diligent government,” added Andrés Forero.
EL COLOMBIANO asked the press office of the Ministry of Health if it would give any response to these events and one of its advisors responded that “for now I do not have that answer” and referred to a press conference last week in which “it was They answered all the concerns,” but acknowledged that none of the questions had to do with this complaint.
The other 7.8 million doses lost
At the end of September, an investigation by the La Silla Vacía portal revealed that 7.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine that were purchased during the Government of Iván Duque were lost in Colombia.
According to the report, this occurred between February 2022 (end of the Duque government) and August 2023 (first year of the Petro government), the majority of doses of which were left waiting in containers in the Bogotá Free Trade Zone or because they passed the date. expiration.
Of that figure, 7,559,179 doses (that is, 96%) were lost in the current government and 240,821 (the remaining 4%) in the previous one.
To read more news about politics, peace, health, justice and current events, visit the Colombia section of EL COLOMBIANO.
2023-11-04 05:01:54
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