With the 547,880 vaccines against covid-19 from the Sinovac laboratory that arrived in Colombia this Sunday, the country will already have 2’015,052 doses in its territory that will allow to finish covering the health personnel who are in the front line and now begin vaccination mass of adults over 80 years of age.
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Although in recent days there have been images of some older adults who have already received the first dose of the vaccine, especially in Bogotá, Until now, most of the biologicals have been destined to be applied to health personnel who have dedicated themselves to treating those infected with the virus on the front line.
“We have not yet begun mass vaccination of people over 80. With the vaccines that arrive this week, we will begin to massively cover that population,” said the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz.
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As reported by the National Government, in the first stage, which is currently vaccination, it is contemplated to immunize 100 percent of health workers and support staff on the front line, as well as all those over 80 years of age in the territory. They total 1,691,366 people.
“We are confident that by the end of this month, we have succeeded in vaccinating all front-line human talent and are well advanced in immunizing adults over 80. It depends on the territories and the speed with which they are applied,” said Ruiz.
In fact, in the case of Bogotá, it is expected that by today, as stated by Mayor Claudia López, “all the medical and healthcare personnel of the 71 hospitals in Bogotá will have 100 percent their first dose of vaccine.”
And starting this Monday, the District will enable four public arenas and two private points (Movistar Arena and Hospital San Ignacio), to begin the vaccination of more than 170,000 older adults.
With the arrival of these new doses, which correspond to the most important batch that the country has received so far, an increase in the average speed of daily vaccination in the country is also expected.
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“Clearly still an installed application capacity that we are not using. The expectation is to apply much more than 100 thousand, I think we should apply about 200 thousand daily vaccines, and that implies extramural growth because in the second phase we will surely have to start applying outside the health services ”, Explained Minister Ruiz, in an interview with Colprensa.
The Government even contemplates that for the second phase, in which it is expected to vaccinate the younger population, calls will be made in “coliseums and parking lots”.
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In the next few hours the National Government will publish the resolution with the distribution of these new doses by department. However, as it was known, Amazonas would continue to have priority, since it is a border department with Brazil, where a new strain of the virus circulates.
As explained by President Iván Duque, in dialogue with EL TIEMPO, “to date we have invested around 2.4 billion pesos to ensure 66.5 million vaccines, equivalent to more than 70 percent of the population.”
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