The national government assured that it will not buy more vaccines against covid-19

In dialogue with the newspaper El Colombiano, the director of the Administrative Department of the Presidency (Dapre), Víctor Muñoz, announced that, for the time being, Colombia will not acquire more vaccines against covid-19because he assured the country has “enough volumes.”

As indicated by the official to the same outlet, the decision not to acquire more vaccines rests on the fact that, to date, the country has bought 88 million doses of biologicals, has received two million doses that it bought from the private sector and, in addition, has received 14 million immunizers that have been donated by other governments, which means that the country has a total of 104 million doses of vaccines.

”To date, 75.3 million doses have been applied in Colombia, as of February 15. This indicates to us that we have about 29 million doses available to continue with the vaccination process. They are sufficient doses to vaccinate the entire Colombian population, especially with second doses and booster doses,” Muñoz explained to El Colombiano.

Although the official emphasized that, for the moment, the national government will not buy more vaccines, he assured that both the “technical tables” like the “negotiation tables” will remain open well, depending on the behavior of the virus, it will activate “the purchase procedure, which is already expedited.”

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“But at the moment we hope not to make any more purchases. We have sufficient doses, a sufficient inventory”, pointed out the director of Dapre, in dialogue with the Antioquia newspaper.

As to the possibility that a fourth dose against covid-19 will be neededAccording to the projections of some pharmaceutical companies, Muñoz announced to the same outlet that, although the issue has already been discussed with the national government’s technical committee, for the moment, the specialists assure that it will not be necessary.

As detailed, the technical table considers that “with the vaccination schedule and coverage” of immunization that the country has achieved, for now, doesn’t seem necessary “a (new) hybrid vaccination”. However, he indicated that these are decisions that are analyzed every week because, depending on how the virus progresses, they could be modified.

The director of Dapre was also consulted about what will happen with the declaration of emergency in the country, since the expiration date of the same will be next February 28 therefore, less than two weeks before it is fulfilled, It is unknown if the national government will extend it.

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“As President Duque has said, the health emergency will remain until there is a declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). And for now, the WHO has not changed its position,” Muñoz said in his dialogue with El Colombiano.

Faced with the national government’s goals for the National Vaccination Plan for the beginning of this year, the official told the same outlet that expect to end the month of February with more than 79 million doses injectedwhile for the month of March, they expect “reach about 85 or 86 million doses applied” and so “achieve the goal of having 80% of the population with two doses”.

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