Vaccination in El Salvador, the one that grows the least in CA

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, El Salvador was the Central American country where the coverage of the two doses of the covid-19 vaccine grew the least, reveals an analysis by the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (ICEFI), published this week.

In its third monitoring of vaccination in the country, ICEFI warned of a slowdown in the pace of immunization. Ricardo Castaneda, senior economist at the Institute, explained that until December 31, 2021, 64% of the country’s population had a primary scheme, that is, they had received the first two vaccines. At that time, El Salvador was the second country in the region with the best records, Castaneda pointed out, but at the end of March this year it dropped to fourth place. Although the coverage of the two doses rose to 70% of the population by March 31, after growing 9.38%, other countries in the region advanced more.

Nicaragua led Central America with an increase of 90.7%, as coverage climbed from 43% of the population to 82% between December and March. It was followed by Guatemala, where coverage rose from 26 to 43%, that is, 65.4% more; while in Panama the population with two doses went from 56 to 79%, which meant a growth of 41.1%. In Honduras, coverage increased 23.3%, going from 43 to 53% and in Costa Rica it went from 69 to 84%, with an increase of 21.7%.

“When comparing the closures of the first quarter of 2022 with respect to December 31, 2021, El Salvador is the country with the smallest increase in coverage in the entire Central American region and a lot of attention must be paid to this,” Castaneda said during the virtual presentation of the report.

Epidemiologist Wilfrido Clará, who commented on the results of the ICEFI report, explained that the slowdown in vaccination is a “long-standing” phenomenon, which began in October 2021 for the first dose and in mid-December for the second, noting at least two factors that, he said, explain this behavior.

One of these factors, he said, is the “premature introduction” of the third generalized dose, which was enabled on September 25, 2021. The epidemiologist explained that the third vaccine was introduced “when acceptable coverage of the second had not yet been achieved.” dose” and considered that the Government could have waited a while longer, while more scientific evidence of its effectiveness emerged, and concentrated those efforts on increasing the coverage of the first and second vaccine.

“Remember that at that time the omicron had not yet been detected and for the circulation of the delta variant it was well accepted that the two-dose primary regimen was highly effective in preventing severe disease and death,” he explained.