Besides of stagnation in the number of the immunized population against him covid-19, that has been dragging on for several weeks, there are more than 80,000 doses of AstraZeneca that expire within three days.
The irresponsible loss of these biological lies in the insane agreements signed by the National Government for the provision of vaccines and lack of strategies of the Ministry of Public Health (MSPBS), that only now is looking for exits that it should have foreseen before.
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Added to this is a absurd communication campaign that only starts now and will cost more than US $ 700,000 and the unconsciousness of those who are deniers and prefer not to be immunized.
Biologics that expire -delivered to Paraguay as a donation- have an expiration date of November 30the doctor explained yesterday Héctor Castro, director of the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI), during the weekly Public Health conference.
Although he did not specify the details, Castro mentioned that the expiring vaccines were not used in their entirety, but that the number was greatly reduced.
“We had 500,000 doses when we started talking about expiration dates and several strategies were established that achieved a average application of this platform of 15,000 doses per day “commented the EPI director.
The doctor assured that several sanitary regions no longer have any doses AstraZeneca’s due this month, but there are others that still have biologics that expire in three days.
“There are 4 or 5 regions that still have 10,000 to 20,000 doses. An enormous effort is being made. The last day, if there are still vaccines with that expiration date, they will be withdrawn”, Assured Castro.
Vaccines donated on time
Although at a certain point, Paraguay celebrated each anticovid vaccine that arrived in the countryDuring the last months the biologicals -mainly donated to Paraguay- had an expiration date that did not even provide the necessary margin between doses.
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One of the clear examples is the batch of 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca that arrived in the country on October 16, with an expiration date of the 31st of that same month. Just like this, there are other shipments with very close dates that should never have been accepted.
Two of the largest batches of this platform that arrived in the country and that have already been used in part, are of 312,000 doses, which arrived on September 24 and have an expiration date of November 30, and 237,000 vaccines, which arrived on September 13 and that expire on December 31st.
Vaccine availability
At another point in the press conference, Castro assured that circulating doses are currently available. “At this time we have over 500,000. We also have the arrival of Moderna, 96,000 this week, the arrival of Pfizer from yesterday (Thursday) until the weekend, which is about 600,000 vaccines ”, he said.
For the moment, the inoculation of 1,193,757 people aged 12 and over is still missing to reach 80% of the goal set by Public Health.
Delta: present in Asunción and 16 departments of the country
The epidemiological situation in the country was another of the topics discussed yesterday at a press conference. It was recalled that the delta variant is the predominant mutation in the country and that the Covid vaccination is the most important strategy for containing the virus.
As explained by the doctor Sandra Irala, from Health Surveillance, this covid-19 lineage is present in Asunción, as well as in 16 departments of the country. He specified that only in Boquerón the mutation has not been detected, according to genomic surveillance.
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“We have to advance in vaccination and maintain sanitary measures. Currently 7 out of 10 hospitalized patients are unvaccinated. There is a relaxation in sanitary measures and stagnation in the advance of vaccination, ”said Dr. Irala.
The epidemiologist also stated that the current mortality curve “scares” and that, according to projections, February will be “the highest point” of contagions.
According to the report presented, of 3 deaths reported five weeks ago (week 43), now, in week 46, the number increased to 22 deaths.
Regarding the new findings delta, specified that there are 61, thus adding 441 cases, according to genomic samples.
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Non-pharmacological strategies against delta
On efficacy of delta variant vaccine, which according to World Health Organization (WHO) is 40% less before infections, the director of the EPI, Héctor Castro, stated that the non-pharmacological measures, such as physical distancing, use of masks, hand washing and others.
Castro assured, however, that Public Health insists on “that vaccines protect us against serious forms of disease and death ”.
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