Colombia remains in the application of second vaccines against covid-19

With the passage of another week, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection reconfirmed the need to intensify the application of second doses of the vaccine against covid-19. Asó said Gerson Bermont, director of Promotion and Prevention of the entity, during the delivery of the balance of execution of the National Vaccination Plan, on November 19.

The official began by presenting the percentage progress of the immunization process, noting that in Colombia have applied first and only doses to 65.3% of their population —The goal was to reach 70% by November 15—, while in complete schemes, where the Janssen single-dose is included again, an advance of 45.6% is recorded.

Taking into account that the other objective of the national government is to have 70% of the population with complete schemes by December 31e, it was determined that a total of 12,472,604 people still need to be reached, in what the official described as a major challenge. “We need to complete and locate those people to achieve the goal. We have to make a great effort ”, he stressed.

Going into detail, Bermont specified how the advancements of first doses in special groups are going such as pregnant mothers, where 158,468 vaccines have been applied; migrants with 177,721; children with 1,433,117 and reinforcements with 687,034, according to data from November 17.

Then he referred to the different age groups, where he indicated that in over 70 years there is a 96% advance in first and only doses; and 91.5% in second and single doses, as well as 20% in booster doses. In the group of 50 to 59 years, there are, respectively, rates of 84.5, 76 and 5%.

In the group aged 30 to 49 years, the advance is 83% in the first and only doses; 61.2% in second and single doses and 3% in booster doses; while in the 12 to 29 age group the figures climb, again in the same order, to 60.7, 30.5 and 2%. Finally, there are Colombians between the ages of 3 and 11, where there is only an 18% advance in the first class.

With these figures, the Director of Promotion and Prevention warned that “the mobility that we are going to have in December, with the reunion of families,We forget to have activities that relax biosecurity measures, We run the risk that our population over 50 years of age may have some risk of becoming ill or dying, even if they are vaccinated ”.

Finally, Bermont spoke of the development of the PNV by departments, where most territories are above 50% of the population, “but as the national average is above 65%, they are lagging behind”

He also highlighted that the percentages increased in Barranquilla, “where they continue to intensify the search” or San Andrés, “where we reactivate the application of vaccines.” He also celebrated that “last week we had 502 municipalities above the national average, today we have 597”.

Still, Bermont insisted on the gap between first and second doses, which currently stands at 20%, with data analyzed between September 28 with application of the first and November 16, which is when they should receive the second dose.

The difference corresponds to 4,511,454 people, “who are subject to induced demand for the second dose, that they arrive at the vaccination points, so that they complete their schedules. We have to make an effort to search for this population ”.

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