The setting up of community vaccination centers and house-to-house actions are part of the strategy implemented by the authorities to advance the immunization process.
“We are attacking the department of Guatemala,” declared President Alejandro Giammattei, who went to the centers set up in the Mario Alioto López Sánchez and Mártires de Pueblo neighborhoods in Villa Nueva in the afternoon and evening of this Saturday, September 4.
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The objective, said the president, is to “attack” in the areas where the least people have come to be vaccinated, and that most are dedicated to informal activities, since it is impossible for them to do so from Monday to Friday.
He specified that the department of Guatemala has an incidence of 45% of the cases of contagion of covid-19.
“What we are doing is bringing the vaccination centers closer to them, and the mobility restriction is to vaccinate people at home and we go from house to house doing tests and giving injections,” said the president, referring to whether Congress he would know the state of Calamity.
He recalled that Villa Canales, San Miguel Petapa and Villa Nueva, where community vaccination began on Friday, are territories that have had a rebound in the delta variable in the last two weeks, and that is why the vaccination center and a mobile laboratory were enabled.
Giammattei mentioned that the institutions that are participating are the Ministries of Health and Defense, as well as other branches of the Executive, which have to give vaccines and go out into the streets.
He also noted that they would expect support from universities, but have met resistance from two deans of medical schools, who were asked to volunteer for medical students to accompany the vaccination to quadruple the scope.
He clarified that they maintain a supply of vaccines and supplies, and what is needed is a qualified hand to inject the vaccines.
National vaccination plan
The Deputy Minister of Health, Edwin Montúfar, in charge of the primary health care area, remarked that it is the national vaccination plan, which precisely seeks to bring the vaccine to the majority of people in coordination with other institutions, and also a mass of tests.
Like the president, he reiterated that it is an intervention to bring vaccination closer to families, in their homes, through vaccination posts or home visits.
The first center began operating on Friday, September 3 at night in the Bethania neighborhood, zone 7 of the capital; in Villa Nueva, in the Alioto López Sánchez and Mártires del Pueblo colonies, and in Villa Canales, in three communities where 888 people were vaccinated, of which 32 were second doses.
“This population is dormitory cities and the office hours of the posts work until 2:00 p.m., and that limits and with the opening at night hours gave us the guideline to implement them, and these pilots are leading us to take lessons learned, units of improvement to do it in a better way ”, stressed the deputy minister.
Among the known lessons, Montúfar remarked, is the work developed with local committees, and the community members are the ones who supported to visit door-to-door with Health personnel, inviting the population to get vaccinated and in a short time citizen participation made the difference.
In the López Sánchez center there were 1,600 doses, but the demand was prepared for 1,400 more.
“We have more impact to enable centers; Going from house to house took us a long time and it is more difficult to search for people, and mass centers are more effective because the population is concentrated ”, he remarked.
On the day of this Saturday, people over 18 years of age were being vaccinated.
Regarding future scenarios, Montufar specified that the epidemiological traffic light increased from 289 to 305 municipalities in red this fortnight, the number of tests was increased from 147 thousand to 167 thousand, and the decrease in positivity from 33 to 31 was achieved. %.
Between doubt and lack of time
Family nuclei, neighbors and friends met at the massive vaccination post in the Alioto López Sánchez neighborhood.
Rossely Dubois, 30, said she was hesitant to get vaccinated, since she had heard things about the vaccine, however, given the increase in infections, she decided to go to the center with other residents of her neighborhood.
“I had to come because the situation is critical in the block where I live,” she said afterwards that an agent of the National Civil Police placed her in line to apply the dose.
Zoyla López, went to get the first dose and said that she found out about the vaccination in the colony and is complying with what she is asking for and “first God pass this on.”
Ryddick Méndez, 27, and his wife Karen López came Saturday night to get vaccinated.
“Because of work I don’t have much time, I live close by and they are at night, it is good to get the vaccine,” he said.
Eddie Parada, a neighbor of the Mario Alioto neighborhood in Villa Nueva, said he went to get the first dose.
“You don’t feel anything, it doesn’t hurt and I don’t have symptoms,” he said.
Logistical support
Defense Minister Juan Carlos Alemán declared that in this new role, he coordinated with other institutions in Villa Nueva, Villa Canales, San Miguel Petapa and Bethania.
“There are more than 125 people from the brigades who are supporting to provide support to Health and we hope to increase the number of vaccinated people as has been done in the Honor Guard, Mariscal Zavala and other points,” he remarked.
The minister that the other pilot plan is to reach people’s homes to vaccinate, and it would be expected to increase that number in coordination with Health.
Model for other regions
Dr. Manolo Vicente, technical assistant of the general direction of the Comprehensive Health Care System, declared that on average last night 900 people were vaccinated in a period of two hours, both in Mario Alioto and Mártires del Pueblo.
On the samples taken, 20 were performed, of which there were five positives, which is equivalent to 30% positivity in these two colonies.
“It is important to bring vaccination closer to the population and this is a strategy that has been implemented and there was a good response from the population,” he said.
Both in Mario Alioto and Mártires del Pueblo, there is a high concentration of population, and according to the technician, it allows promoting the vaccine and people can approach for their doses.
In three days of work, it would be expected to vaccinate about five thousand people in three days of work.
Starting this Sunday, people over 18 years of age will be vaccinated, and then they would be moving to other highly populated areas, and two more regions will be reported soon.
“In the province we are implementing the door-to-door strategy and in Retalhuleu it was implemented to have more conviction and inform the population about vaccination and face the increase in cases in these last two weeks,” he concluded.
According to official data, three million 468 thousand 839 people have been vaccinated with the first dose in the country. In addition, one million 437 thousand 882 vaccinated already have the complete scheme. In other words, there are four million 906 thousand 700 people vaccinated to date. Only yesterday 41,261 people were inoculated.
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