Chile received the first batch of 158,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Friday through the COVAX mechanism, at a critical moment in the new coronavirus pandemic in the South American country.
With this first shipment, “we total practically 16 million vaccines that we have received in our country,” said the Minister of Science, Andrés Couve, after the drug arrived at the Santiago airport.
Chile will receive more than 800,000 doses of this vaccine through COVAX, which, according to the latest recommendation of the country’s Public Health Institute (IPS), will be administered to women over 55 years of age and to men over 18 years of age.
In the country, a clinical trial of this vaccine was carried out at the University of Chile with 2,300 volunteers. The doctor from that study center, María Elena Santolaya, referred to the risk of thrombi from this inoculant that only 86 cases have been reported in 25 million inhabitants, which is equivalent to 0.0003%. No cases were recorded in the Chilean clinical study, he added.
“The precaution that the ISP has taken, which is a very rigorous entity that works very well with all the scientific antecedents, is not to expose women under 55 years of age to this vaccine, considering that the few existing cases accumulate at that age ”, He specified.
Chile has committed seven million doses in 2021 through the COVAX mechanism of the World Health Organization, the global initiative that provides vaccines to nations that lack the influence to negotiate the purchase themselves.
The arrival of the vaccine occurs at a time when Chile has slowed down in its advanced vaccination process and prioritizes the application of the second dose. This is because the country does not have as much stock available as in the past, according to the authorities.
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Health, almost 14 million doses have been administered: 8 million people with a single dose (41% of the total population) and more than 6 million people with two (31% of the population ), mostly with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine and just over 10% with the Pfizer-BioNTech drug.
Chile is experiencing a critical moment of the pandemic with a sustained increase in cases and hospital occupancy exceeding 95%.
In an effort to curb infections, the government keeps 90% of Chileans under total or partial quarantine. Chile has so far accumulated more than 1.1 million infected and more than 25,500 deaths from the virus.
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