Juan Ignacio Schwerdt / [email protected]
The application of the third booster dose against Covid-19 has begun tepidly in the region. According to official data, only 801 people have received the vaccine, although health authorities are confident that the campaign will gain new momentum in this new instance of the fight against the coronavirus.
“The message is that we must renew our commitment to protect all of us from Covid-19,” said Maximiliano Núñez Fariña, head of Health Region I.
The 801 people who have received the fifth dose (or third booster) so far represent just 0.92% of those who have been vaccinated with the fourth (or second booster).
In Bahía Blanca the percentages are even worse. In this case, there are 287 vaccinated, a figure which constitutes only 0.89% of the 32,001 people who received the fourth dose.
“These are numbers that we hope to increase as the days go by,” hoped the reference from the Ministry of Health of Buenos Aires in dialogue with Panorama, from LU2 Radio Bahía Blanca.
“For now this dose is not for everyone, but very soon it will be. As always, it starts with the groups that need the most protection and then adds to the rest,” the official said.
The third booster dose – the fifth in the scheme – began to be applied massively last week to people over the age of 50, health personnel and immunocompromised people over the age of 12. The only condition is that more than four months have passed since the previous application.
The vaccines currently in use are those of Pfizer and Moderna laboratories.
For now, only medical personnel, the immunocompromised and people over 50 are summoned.
“What needs to be clarified is that vaccination continues for everyone. Those who meet the requirements can receive the third booster, but those who, for example, have received the first dose and must complete the initial schedule are also vaccinated,” said Núñez Fariña.
“And you don’t have to register, but attend the vaccination centers that exist in each of the 15 municipalities or the traveling stations. Whoever does the operation has everyone’s data,” she added.
“Those who have abandoned the regimen can return when they want, as long as they wait four months after the previous dose,” he concluded.
Presumption or disinterest?
Vaccination against Covid-19 is steadily declining across the country and the area is no exception.
According to official data, in the 15 districts that make up Health Region I, 93.54% of the estimated population (633,082 people) received the first dose, while 92.22% (583,846) completed the initial regimen with the second .
These are very high percentages for a vaccination campaign, which however did not have continuity in the subsequent requests coordinated by the Ministry of Health.
The third dose (or first booster), by chance, currently has a coverage rate of 57.38%.
This means that 388,378 people who had received the two initial doses then continued the program, but as many as 195,468 abandoned it (almost a third).
With the fourth dose (second booster), disinterest increased even more: of the almost 390,000 people who had received the third vaccine, only 87,382 decided to continue with the regimen; that is, only 22.5%.
This indicates that, at the beginning of the campaign corresponding to the fifth dose (or third booster), only 13.8% of those who have ever presented to be vaccinated against Covid-19 are in compliance with the immunization schedule.
“This reality -explained Núñez Fariña- is similar to that of other regions and provinces of the country, and responds to the fact that we are in an excellent moment in epidemiological matters”.
“In Health Region I, in fact, in the last two weeks we have recorded an average of 9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which is very good. In Bahía Blanca we only have 26 active cases,” he added.
Maxiliano Núñez Fariña, owner of the Health Region I.
“This demonstrates the effectiveness of vaccination. That more than 90% of the population has the first and second dose has allowed us to form an immune shield in the region. This is a job that the state has done and that has generated trust in the people, and that is why so many people have come to get vaccinated ”, she concluded.
“Thanks to this, there are almost no deaths from Covid. We are experiencing very important stability, but we must not trust ourselves ”, he stressed.
Núñez Fariña, on the other hand, remarked that the new variants of Covid-19 that are being discovered “deserve attention and respect”.
“They are very contagious, but at the same time we know that the vaccines we are administering are effective against them,” he closed.
MMR and measles
The campaign for the application of triple viral vaccines (rubella, mumps and poliomyelitis) and against measles, which began on 1 October, will continue until the end of the month.
“The campaign got off to a slow start, but in recent days the Health Region has recorded an important vaccination rate,” explained the head of Health Region I.
The campaign began with a target population of 30,000 people in the area, including 15,000 in Bahía Blanca.
“Thanks to the adhesion of all municipalities, today we have coverage of more than 30% of the target population in Bahia and 43% in the region. We are far from the expected minimum, which is 70%, but we are confident that the extension of the campaign will allow us to reach more people,” she explained.
“In the first few weeks the campaign coincided with a flu spike and many children were absent from kindergarten, which made things difficult for us, but we are hopeful we can reverse that,” he added.
“We are talking about diseases that have done a lot of damage, so it is important that people get closer,” concluded Núñez Fariña.
