Panama City, December 3 (EFE).- The Panamanian Ministry of Health (MINSA) communicated this Saturday the approval of the emergency use of Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine, to be applied to people who have at least two doses against covid-19 .
The emergency use of the “Covid-19 Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine”, in its new bivalent presentation of active immunization to prevent covid-19 in people over the age of 12, has been authorized by the National Directorate of Pharmacy and Medicines of the Minsa.
The new bivalent presentation offers better protection against circulating variants (Original and Ómicron BA.4/BA.5, XBB, BQ1, BQ1.1), says a statement from the health agency.
Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine is supplied in single-dose booster vials and is applied at least 2 months after completing a primary vaccination schedule with any covid-19 monovalent vaccine and receiving one of the most recent booster doses, “that is, having a minimum of 2 doses of the covid-19 vaccine,” according to the Minsa.
Monovalent is any licensed or approved covid-19 vaccine that contains or encodes the spike protein only from the original SARS-CoV-2, “which is the one applied in the country today,” the official information said.
The bivalent vaccine targets both the original strain of the coronavirus and the Omicron variant that emerged in late 2021.
The original vaccines used during the pandemic were developed to fight the original form of the virus that emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, but the virus has since mutated as new variants have emerged that can evade the immune system, causing disease outbreaks in many countries.
On November 29, the Panamanian Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, said that steps are being taken to ensure that the mixed or bivalent vaccines arrive by the end of the year.
“We said it, for the first quarter of 2023, but we are trying to get Pfizer ahead of time, to send us a group of mixed or bivalent vaccines at the end of December and thus be able to vaccinate mainly on the front line. All Panamanians who wish to apply the same” Sucre said.
Title Minsa added that the arrival of 70,000 new doses of regular covid-19 vaccines for adults is also being handled with Pfizer.
Panama, which is going through a sixth wave of the pandemic with an increase in cases and also in positivity, has accumulated up to November 26 1,002,161 confirmed infections and 8,526 deaths in more than two years of the pandemic.
The Minsa has reiterated to the population the importance of maintaining self-care or biosecurity measures to avoid contagion from covid-19, such as the use of masks, physical distancing and hand washing. EFE extension
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