Complete Vaccination Scheme Urged by Minsa to Combat EG.5 Variant of Coronavirus

Minsa asks the population to complete the vaccination scheme. Martin Mejia / AP

Although the new variant EG.5 of the coronavirus, reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), has not yet been identified in Peru, it is already found in 51 countries, for which reason the Ministry of Health (Minsa) recommends to the population complete the vaccination schedule against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The WHO has declared this new strain a variant of “interest”, since it monitors the issue through global laboratory networks, and maintains communication with researchers, health officials and scientists, in order to analyze the evolution of the virus to quickly identify the emergence of any new variant.

Although the knowledge of a new variant always arouses fear in the population, the WHO specified that there is still no evidence that it produces a more severe disease compared to other variants or sub-lineages of Omicron.

Although EG.5 has not been identified in Peru, all the variants already found are monitored by the SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Surveillance team of the National Institute of Health (INS), since 2020.

“The bivalent vaccine, which includes the Ómicron lineages from which EG.5 descends, is already available throughout Peru, so this sector recommends getting vaccinated according to age, especially in the most vulnerable groups, older adults, and in people without vaccinated ”, the Minsa pointed out after the news was released.

“COVID-19 booster vaccination is the safest and most effective measure to prevent severe illness, hospitalization, and death against all strains of the virus that causes COVID-19,” they added.

In order to reinforce precautions, specialists also recommend keeping rooms ventilated and wearing a mask in case respiratory symptoms of any kind occur, especially in closed spaces such as schools, offices and public transport.

At the beginning of May of this 2023, the World Health Organization announced that it was ending the emergency that it declared for COVID-19 more than three years ago, after the pandemic left a balance of millions of people dead throughout the world. world.

“It is with great hope that I declare the end of COVID-19 as an international health emergency,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on that date.

In Peru, one of the countries with the highest mortality from COVID-19, the disease left more than 200,000 deaths, after the country corrected its death figures in May 2021, going from 69,000 to 180,000.

2023-08-12 00:06:19
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