Latin American countries that have begun to vaccinate children and young people without having previously achieved a high immunization rate among adults and the most vulnerable sectors could be dispersing their efforts, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday.
If a country begins to offer vaccines for everyone and does not focus on priority groups, “we may not be using vaccines in the best way,” warned PAHO Deputy Director Jarbas Barbosa.
“The problem is not really low vaccination in children or no vaccination in children. It is that we still do not reach the vaccination of vulnerable groups to end mortality from COVID and vaccinate adults, all adults, to reduce transmission. That is the great priority ”, he assured.
Barbosa’s comments at a PAHO virtual press conference took place at a time when many countries in the region have begun to immunize minors, even though they have not achieved high vaccination rates among priority sectors. PAHO, however, did not specify which countries are.
With a handful of exceptions, including the Dominican Republic and Belize, throughout the Americas the pandemic has improved and for the eighth consecutive week the cases have dropped to just over 745,000 in the last seven days. Recorded COVID-19 deaths were 18,000.
PAHO has attributed the improvement to the implementation of sanitary measures and the increase in immunization, despite inequalities between countries and obstacles to accessing doses.
At a general level, a handful of nations in the region -among them Chile- have immunized more than 70% of their population. The vast majority have only vaccinated an average of 40% and there are still countries like Haiti, Nicaragua and Guatemala that have not even reached 20%.
Barbosa explained that some countries have not yet achieved a high coverage of between 80% and 90% with the two doses for those over 60 years of age, who are from the priority groups.
“So, until that vaccination is completed, starting to offer vaccines for young adults, for example, can disperse efforts, lose priority for those people who really should get vaccinated first,” he said.
“Only later should countries consider vaccinating youth groups,” said the official, after explaining that for now there is no evidence that vaccinating students should be a requirement to open schools.
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