President Alejandro Giammattei announced this Friday, August 20, on a national network that the registry for vaccination of people over 25 years of age is now enabled.
The president’s announcement came a day after Guatemala set a record in the number of daily infections with 5,826 and when thousands of Guatemalans desperately seek access to the drug, mainly a second dose.
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“Go register and get vaccinated, take your parents, uncles and grandparents. the vaccine by itself is not a guarantee that you will not be infected, but it helps to dramatically decrease mortality, so young people, get vaccinated, “said Giammattei.
He added that the percentage of positivity in Guatemala -38.11% – is alarming because “it brings us very dangerously close to 40 percent of positivity,” which occurred last year during the highest peak of the disease.
He said that the increase in cases “is a phenomenon that is not exclusive to Guatemala,” since other countries “are suffering with the same calamity,” despite having more robust health systems.
In addition, he mentioned that, with the presence of more strains, the situation is complicated for the Health system, for which he urged the population to redouble prevention measures.
“The situation is complicated by the presence of the new Lambda variant, a strain from Peru where it is responsible for most of the positive cases and which the WHO qualifies as one of interests that is transmitted much more easily,” he said.
Also read: They detect the first case of the lambda variant in Guatemala, while the delta continues to expand
The president criticized the opponents and said that “we cannot lower our guard and we cannot waste time in sterile discussions, this is the moment to join forces, to offer solutions instead of spending valuable time criticizing and putting obstacles in the fight against the pandemic ”, added the president without clarifying who he was referring to.
“We are facing a relentless battle against a highly dangerous enemy. In Guatemala the situation has been critical due to the abandonment of the Health system for 40 years ”, he reiterated.
He added that “this is not the time to weaken the institutions and block the development of the country” and that “this time demands that we unite and fight against the coronavirus.”
“Political interests must be put aside, the time will come to do partisan politics,” said the president.
In addition, he added that at around 9 a.m. this Friday, 3 million 662 thousand 21 people had already been vaccinated, of which 2 million 916 thousand 358 correspond to the first dose. The target population to be vaccinated in Guatemala is 10 million 529 thousand people.
“The vaccines will continue to arrive in Guatemala, some donated and others purchased,” said the president, who assured that the donations have been achieved thanks to “good” relations with other countries.
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