To date, more than two million Peruvians have already received the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and they are better protected against COVID-19, reported the Minister of Health, Jorge López Peña.
“To date, more than 2 million people have already received the fourth dose of the covid-19 vaccine and more than 18 million people already have the third dose against this same infection, which represents 65.5% of the target population. ”, detailed the head of the Minsa, during the tenth extraordinary session of the National Health Council.
In said meeting, he highlighted that downtown Lima and Ica lead the ranking of places with the highest Vaccination levels against COVID-19 at the national level.
Peru is the third most advanced country in the COVID-19 vaccination in Latin America. We are ranked 14th globally for first dose, 22nd for second dose, and 23rd for third and fourth doses,” she added.
VACCINATE CHILDREN
The minister recalled at the experts’ meeting that vaccines were not created to prevent COVID-19but to reduce the risk of death, serious illness, hospitalizations and the possibility of needing an ICU bed.
He asked the population to continue with social distancing, wear a double mask or a KN95 mask, wash their hands and complete the immunization schedule against covid-19, in addition to keeping all closed spaces or environments ventilated, such as public transport vehicles. , among others.
“It is so important that all Peruvians be able to go to the vaccination clinics at the closest health facilities in order to further strengthen protection. It is necessary that we continue vaccinating our boys and girls, we have a target population of 4 million 200 thousand minors, between 5 and 11 years of age”.
He asked parents to remember that parallel to vaccination against coronavirus, minors can also be immunized against influenza and human papillomavirus, vaccines available at all vaccination centers in the country.
MONKEYPOX
At the same meeting, Jorge López explained that the Minsa has a plan for preparation and response to monkeypox, which was approved on June 7, whose objective is to strengthen the response capacity of health services against this infection.
“We have arranged that all health establishments, level 2 and 3 of care, can receive monkeypox casesWe also have 5 hospitals in Metropolitan Lima and Callao with isolation areas against this same disease.
The minister stressed that the tests to rule out this infection are carried out in less than 24 hours and should no longer be sent abroad to find out if the cases are positive or not.
“We recommend that we continue to wear masks, wash our hands frequently and avoid physical contact with people suspected of having monkeypox infection,” he said.
The genomic surveillance team of the National Institute of Health (INS) of the Ministry of Health (Minsa) managed to sequence the monkeypox virus genome of the first confirmed case in Peru and determined that the variant that caused this infection is the least lethal and virulent of the two that exist in the world.
This was stated by Dr. Oscar Escalante, executive director of Communicable Diseases of the INS, who also said that this sequencing allows us to know the variability of this virus and to know what we are facing in order to adopt the necessary prevention measures in our territory.
He explained that there are two different lineages of monkeypox, one located in the area of the Central African clade (phylogenetic group) and the other in the West African clade, the latter being the one with the least virulence and the one found circulating in Peru.
(Andean)
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