It’s the “ideal time” to get vaccinated: experts insist on prevention against Covid-19

Among a new wave of cases of COVID-19 on the island, where a positivity rate of 21.6% was recorded yesterday, the infectious specialist IRis Velázquez Gomez He stressed that people should be vaccinated with the new bivalent dose to strengthen their antibodies and thus protect the most vulnerable in family activities two weeks before Christmas.

In his report today, the Department of Health identified nine new COVID-19 deaths, bringing the total to 5,442 since the start of the emergency in Puerto Rico. Most of the deaths are among the elderly.

“December 24th and 25th are just around the corner. If we want to be protected for the Christmas holidays, we need to get vaccinated now this week, because our bodies take two weeks to create antibodies. We are in the ideal time to protect our families,” explained the expert.

He estimated that 85% of the population has not received the bivalent vaccine. The updated booster dose is called a “bivalent” because it protects against both the original virus that causes COVID-19 and the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

Among his patients with the most complicated pictures or those who came to be hospitalized, the infectologist found that none had received the bivalent vaccine. Furthermore, he insisted that this dose is needed regardless of how many vaccines the person has.

Meanwhile, the director of communications for Ciencia Puerto Rico, Dr. Monica Feliu Mojerhe insisted that the state must strengthen education and prevention strategies.

“At these times, in previous years, we’ve seen the rise of COVID-19, so it’s surprising, what we should have been prepared for, particularly from a public health perspective. (…) It is necessary to strengthen this education on vaccination, on this bivalent or updated reinforcement, to carry out aggressive educational campaigns to motivate people to get vaccinated ”, said Dr. Feliú Mójer.

Also, infection specialist Velázquez Gómez said that another factor is that people have stopped wearing masks. “They have the false idea that they are adequately vaccinated because they have two or three extra vaccines and they take off their masks. They are more at risk of contracting COVID-19 and flu,” he added.