It is Thursday, February 25, 2021. In the midst of the incessant demand from the population for vaccines against covid-19, nurse Magdalena Guevara González becomes the first Guatemalan to receive the dose to protect herself against the virus that has brought the world to face the worst health crisis of the 21st century.
Two years have passed since that stamp, which became a historic event in Guatemala, this Saturday, without the vaccination coverage against coronavirus exceeding the ideal 70% that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended to countries for contain infections. What’s more, half of the Guatemalan population that the Ministry of Health planned to reach still does not have the complete scheme.
In the group of adults over 70 years of age, among those prioritized and the most vulnerable to getting sick and dying, only 55.7% have two doses. The greatest impact of vaccination in the country lies in the 50 and 69 age group, which exceeds 60% but without achieving ideal coverage.
The child and adolescent population is the least reached. Only two out of 10 children between the ages of 6 and 11 have the complete scheme, and among Guatemalans between the ages of 12 and 17 there are four out of 10.
The low availability of the biological became one of the main shortcomings of the National Vaccination Plan, which had errors in its implementation from the beginning. It was not for lack of economic resources, since the Congress of the Republic authorized Q1,500 million for the purchase of doses in the second year of the pandemic.
Despite having a budget, the inability to manage purchases by the Ministry of Health led the country to be one of the last in Latin America to start immunizing its population against covid-19. If he did it thanks to donations.
Weak purchase management
The donation of 5,000 doses of Moderna by the Israeli government was what allowed Guevara González and other health personnel to receive the first vaccine.
From that moment to here, two out of every five doses that have been applied to Guatemalans are the product of the goodwill of Israel, India, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, South Korea, and the United States.
Guatemala’s negotiations with pharmaceutical companies did not prosper, and the doses of Moderna, Pfizer and Astrazeneca – anti-covid biologics approved by international regulatory agencies such as the FDA – that arrived did so through donations and the intervention of the Covax Mechanism, directed in part by the World Health Organization (WHO). 29% of purchased vaccines arrived in the country through the international initiative.
28 million 394 thousand 760 doses against covid-19 of different brands have arrived in the country. (Free Press Photo: PL Newspaper Library)
The Ministry of Health achieved a purchase of 8 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, the million-dollar deal was made with Russia and paid Q614.5 million in advance, without having the logistics and capacity -cold chain- to distribute the biological in the province, which in order to remain effective it is necessary to keep it at -20 degrees Celsius.
According to the Data Laboratory, of the 839 vaccination posts that the Ministry of Health installed in the country as of January 2022, only 45 percent had the capacity to administer the Russian vaccine.
The Sputnik V not only arrived late and in tiny shipments, which contributed to the slow progress of the vaccination, but there was also a loss of the biological. 3 million 963 thousand 44 doses expired, for which Q350 million 927 thousand 546 were paid, including air transportation to bring them to Guatemala.
The doses that expired still remain in dry cellars at the National Biological Center, as the Public Ministry requested that they be an advance test in an investigation related to the purchase of Russian vaccines, a process that has not advanced since May 2021.
Between the loss of the biological and vaccines that arrive in droppers -the last batches arrived last December-, in Guatemala there are currently 226,841 doses of Moderna and Pfizer available to continue vaccination coverage, which has been uneven.
Uneven and centralized process
There are municipalities like San Lorenzo, in Suchitepéquez, where only 5% of the population has the complete scheme, contrary to Guatemala, Guatemala, where, according to official information, all the inhabitants have already received two doses against covid-19 .
The contrasts are also observed in the vaccination posts. Two years ago the lines of people waiting to receive the vaccine were extensive, currently the demand for the doses is low, the places are empty.
In the opinion of Karin Slowing, from the Data Laboratory, the vaccination strategy against covi-19 implemented in Guatemala is urban-centric, and rural areas were relegated. The low coverage in San Lorenzo is an example.
“It was necessary to raise awareness among the population and bring the vaccine supply closer to the communities, which was done too late,” Slowing says.
“They blame people for not getting vaccinated, but there was no prior preparation work for the population to receive the vaccine,” he adds, adding to the misinformation that led to the spread of myths about the injection and rejection. in certain towns.
The result is the slow progress in vaccination against covid-19 in the country, and there is no certainty if more vaccines will arrive. The Ministry of Health said last January that the purchase of more doses will depend on the influx of people to the vaccination posts. Although in the 2023 budget of the Ministry of Health Q443.4 million were included for the purchase of more biological.
