The Minister of Public Health, Dr. Daniel Rivera, announced this Wednesday that the government has already made the pertinent negotiations to receive in March 2022 a shipment of Pfizer vaccines, specific to vaccinate children between 5 and 11 years of age.
In a meeting with the press, where he was accompanied by Eladio Pérez, Vice Minister of Collective Health; Nicole Batlle, director of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and Ronald Skewes, general director of Epidemiology, the minister explained that the logistics and vaccination start date for this age range are still being developed.
“We are doing all the site studies. Perhaps they thought that the next day we were going to vaccinate, but remember that it is a special population. Perhaps it is being studied that it is better (to vaccinate) in the evening or on weekends. We are looking at the logistics because we have to hire special personnel, share the supporting documentation and make a massive announcement of the campaign, ”said the minister.
Rivera specified that the vaccination goal for the 5 to 11-year-old group would be to reach 1,300,000 children.
When questioned about the position of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics that demands more data from studies demonstrating the efficacy, immunogenicity, safety, quality and regulatory endorsement for the application of the Covid vaccine in children 5 to 11 years old, the minister said that it was carried out a consensus taking the numbers presented by the Hugo Mendoza and Robert Reid Cabral hospitals, with a 23% child occupancy and growing. They also relied on European Community reports that testify that the Delta variant contagion entered mainly through children.
“Sinovac has already applied more than 100 million in children and there are no side effects … If you look at it, in the same family there are already people vaccinated with Sinovac. You don’t have to buy it, we have it here and in the case of Pfizer we got in touch and it would arrive in March, which would take a long time ”, replied the doctor.
Rivera explained that the same dose that is applied to the adult is applied to the child, 0.5 milliliters and those 0.5 milliliters are repeated at 28 days. In children, the application would only be in a schedule of two doses that are standard.
The difference with the Pfizer vaccine is that it comes in a special presentation for 10 micrograms, which is not adjusted to the dose required by a person aged 5 to 11 years. “The commercial house has said that it is a different preparation and that is why it is not possible to take a little out of the (current) bottle to vaccinate a child,” he explained.
In countries such as China, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Ecuador and Colombia, the vaccine is already being applied to children from 5 years of age.
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Parents’ societies say
Jorge Luis Peláez Espaillat, president of the Association of Private Educational Institutions (Ainep), affirmed that private schools are guided by the resolutions issued by both the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education and that they will not require vaccination in children aged 5 to 11 until a resolution is issued where it so decides within the established health protocol.
“What there was was a consensus among the scientific or medical class of the country that it could be applied (the vaccine) but that entails the willingness of the parents to do it, that it is fully approved and that the ministries already ask the private schools that their students must be vaccinated ”.
Peláez affirms that each parent decides whether or not to vaccinate their child and as a group of private schools, Ainep complies with a resolution, citing the case of students over 12 years of age who must already be vaccinated or present a PCR test every week to attend your school.
He explained that the protocols are clearly established, they are being complied with and there it is established how it is handled in the event that a positive case is detected, reiterating that the positivity data in schools does not exceed 1.5%, a figure considered very low.
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meta country
Minister Rivera announced that the Dominican Republic lacks only 7.3%, about 568 thousand 712 doses, to meet the country’s goal of achieving 70% of the total population vaccinated against Covid-19.
76.7% of the adult population have already applied a first dose and 62.7% have applied a second. “After 13 million 450 thousand applications, I believe that the population has to understand that it is more reliable to give us the vaccine than to wait for death,” he emphasized.
Regarding influenza, the doctor said this Wednesday that there has been no influenza outbreak in the country, despite the fact that cases of increasing patients with this viral condition have been reported and that the country has 450,000 vaccines for especially the most vulnerable groups: children from 6 to 23 months, pregnant women, the elderly over 65 years of age, chronic patients and health personnel.
“Outbreak is one thing, cases that appear is normal. It is a seasonal disease, of the time, “said the minister.
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