Ministry of Health Urges Citizens to Get Vaccinated with Bivalent Vaccine as New Year 2024 Approaches

Close to the celebration of the arrival of the New Year 2024, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) urged citizens to get vaccinated against COVID-19 with the bivalent vaccine.

According to the Health sector, the bivalent vaccine protects against all subvariants and sublineages of the original virus, including the so-called JN.1, recently detected in Peru, which already reports 12 cases nationwide.

“The protection offered by the bivalent vaccine is key. It is important that all people get vaccinated and have their boosters. The vaccine allows us to reduce the risk of severe illness and death from its cause to almost zero,” said Ricardo Peña Sánchez, Vice Minister of Public Health.

The official recalled that the bivalent vaccine does not prevent a person from becoming infected or spreading COVID-19. However, “it does protect us from the complex links that this severe disease has, such as pneumonia and obviously death.”

READ ALSO: Increase in COVID-19 cases on the eve of the end of the year: are medical breaks returning?

READ ALSO: JN.1 of COVID-19 is already in Peru: how many cases are reported and what other variants are there?

The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that countries that do not have a bivalent vaccine can continue using the first types of vaccines.

“The bivalent vaccine confers specific protection for new sublineages descended from the original strain of COVID-19. “Our country has the bivalent vaccine in sufficient quantity to be administered to the entire population,” she noted.

It is worth remembering that in September of this year, the Minister of Health, César Vásquez, reported that from now on they will only apply the bivalent vaccine to the population because it offers greater protection against COVID-19 and its variants.

“In the coming days, through a directive, (the decision) must be made official so that only the bivalent vaccine is applied at the national level because we have enough of these vaccines to protect all vulnerable groups and people who have yet to be vaccinated in the country,” he indicated on TV Perú.

Vaccination in Campo de Marte

The Campo de Marte vaccination center has been the scene of family immunizations or of young people who bring their parents or grandparents to be vaccinated as “a true gesture of love.”

What is the bivalent vaccine?

According to the Ministry of Health (Minsa), the bivalent vaccine against COVID-19 contains two protective components that allow a better immune response of the body against the infection. It protects from the original virus and its numerous lineages that have appeared in the world.

The Minsa announced that it will redouble efforts to continue the vaccination process, especially in older adults and people with comorbidities, given that they are at greater risk from the new variants of COVID-19.

Over the years, vaccines have demonstrated efficiency in combating the various diseases that have appeared in the world and it is the only way to prevent epidemics such as COVID-19.

2023-12-29 01:03:45
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