Coronavirus in Peru: Bivalent vaccine applied as fourth dose of COVID-19 Minsa National Institute of Health | PERU

From January 1 this year, the application of the bivalent vaccine versus COVID-19 in Peru and this process began with the health personnel and under the protocol which provided as a condition to have the fourth dose to be placed. However, the director of the Higher Institute of Health (INS) of the Ministry of Health (Sometimes), Víctor Suárez, stressed today that this reinforcement has also been applied to those who have the third dose.

“IS the bivalent vaccine is currently applied as a fourth dose in those who have received the third dose, especially in those over the age of 60. It is important to specify this. If I am a healthcare professional and am over 60, only have a third dose, will I get the bivalent vaccine. Even though I am over 60 and not a healthcare professional, I will still receive the bivalent vaccine as a fourth dose. The idea is to fill this important gap that we have between the third and fourth doses ”, she said in dialogue with Rpp.

“There is still no international consensus that there will be an annual vaccination of what is COVID-19. Right now our schedule and generally how it’s run in other countries is four doses and this bivalent vaccine will be applied as a fourth dose and probably later as a third as we have more vaccines starting to arrive in the country.

READ MORE: Who will be the first to receive the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in Peru?

As is known, the protocol for the application of the bivalent booster dose, published last December 29, indicates that for the placement of the bivalent vaccine against him COVID-19 how condition should be counted with the fourth dose for adults aged 59 and under, and at least one third for adults aged 60 and over.

Vittorio Suarez explained that according to WHO recommendations, the first two doses against COVID-19 that the population receives should be with monovalent vaccines, while the third and fourth doses could be with a bivalent vaccine.

“We report some recommendations from WHO, what they recommend is that the first two doses that the population receives should be with these monovalent vaccines, which we have used on any platform, and the third and fourth doses could be with a bivalent vaccine“, he indicated.

“Today we have about 500,000 doses, we hope that between now and July of this year we will receive more or less 13 million doses, but right now we have 500,000, so we are giving some priority, health personnel first, patients first. elderly 60 years, first to those who have the third dose and only need the fourth. As I tell you, the biggest gap we have is between third and fourth,” she said.

READ ALSO: COVID-19 in Peru: the sanitary registration of the Moderna vaccine was canceled and the withdrawal of the dose ordered

What is the bivalent vaccine against COVID-19?

This new type of bivalent vacciness contain two messenger RNA (mRNA) components of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The first is against the original virus which was identified in Wuhan, China in 2019, and the other is a common mRNA component between the BA.4 and BA.5 lineages of the omicron variant.

The bivalent vaccine not only will it avoid hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths, but also it could slow disease transmission or asymptomatic infection.

To better combat the omicron variant, responsible for the majority of COVID-19 infections worldwide, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the application of the new bivalent vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTechwhich will provide greater immunity against the coronavirus.

The new Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, the FDA reported are a booster dose that can be given to anyone who has had the vaccine or previous booster for more than two months.

The vaccine Modern is licensed for use as a single booster dose in people over the age of 18, while the Pfizer-BioNTech It is also licensed for use in children over the age of 12.