For doctoral studies abroad, today Carlos Cáceres (29), Chilean, resides in Santa Bárbara, California. Since September 2019 to date, he has not returned to the country, but he plans to travel soon to carry out different procedures. However, he is concerned that despite being vaccinated with his two doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the US, his immunization will not be recognized to obtain the Mobility Pass when he enters Chile.
His vaccination document shows the batch of each of the vaccines, the date of each of the doses – 21 days apart, different from the 28-day scheme established in Chile – and the health facility where it was inoculated.
Despite the amount of information provided by said document, In Health, there is still no protocol for Chilean or foreign residents who, for various reasons, were inoculated abroad and that allows the schemes to be “homologated”.
Faced with the imminent reopening of the borders towards the end of this month, confirmed by different sources to La Tercera, the “Protected Border” plan -which should be announced this coming Thursday, as announced yesterday Minister Enrique Paris during his interpellation in the Chamber of Deputies- I would privilege the departure of nationals who are vaccinated: the main change is that they would no longer have to submit a request to leave the country.
And for the return, it is still pending what actions will be implemented. It is shuffled, for now, abolish transit hotels and replace them with a home quarantine, which would include all those who reside in the home established by the traveler.
Thus, and with the eventual lifting of part of the travel restrictions, there are not a few Chileans residing abroad who, like Carlos, already plan to come. And the concern that surrounds these days in La Moneda and in Health is to find a formula that allows these have a Mobility Pass and the benefits it brings, and that they do not have to be inoculated again in the country to obtain it.
From the National Immunization Program (PNI) of the Minsal they point out that Chile is not the only country in this situation. “There is currently no homologation system for Covid-19 vaccines in the world.” Therefore, for now the only way to obtain the Mobility Pass is to have been vaccinated in the national territory.
As long as there is no kind of validation at the international level, governed by some level such as the World Health Organization (WHO), there is little that, eventually, could be done, they explain in the PNI. However, from Health they recognize that in the face of various requests, they are working on a way to do it.
“The WHO is looking for a system that allows to verify the vaccination against Covid-19, but to date no country validates the vaccination carried out outside its borders. Chile is also working on a system that allows standardizing vaccination abroad with the different vaccines ”, they address.
Although the issue corresponds to the Ministry of Health, during the meetings with President Sebastián Piñera on Mondays and Thursdays, the rest of the ministers have already raised the problem: The main “knot” is that there is no system to verify that the vaccination document, whether from the US or another country, is reliable.
In the case of Chile, they highlight that the Mobility Pass contains a QR code that, when scanned by any smartphone, redirects to the official government site and provides the name of the person and whether or not they have the vaccines. But this is not uniform in all countries.
Even, During the meetings, it has also been proposed that vaccination certificates issued abroad be accompanied by an antibody test. Although this would not be the best method, since experts have explained that there are two immunities: humoral, which is the one usually measured by tests, and cellular (or “memory”). And sometimes, humoral immunity may not be reflected in the tests, but the second one does exist, which is not measured with laboratory tests.
The option that would be more viable is that, like educational documents, such as certificates of title, the vaccination card from another country is “apostilled”. That is to say, that its veracity or legitimacy is certified by means of certain stamps or electronic signature. In addition to Health, Foreign Relations has also begun to do this legal analysis.
Until now, from the RM Health Seremi they point out that since the Mobility Pass began, there have been many requests from Chileans vaccinated abroad who wish to make their scheme valid in the country. However, there is no detailed registry of how many people are in this situation and, in general, people are referred to the Minsal or the PNI for consultation.
The infectious disease specialist Carlos Pérez explains that, in general, regarding the protocols to “standardize” vaccines, “children who have lived abroad and who have received vaccines usually bring their vaccination card, because they may require it in schools, gardens. But it does not go through the ministry, it is not updated in the registry, it is something on a case-by-case basis. And in the case of vaccines against Covid-19, this is a problem that has not been resolved, which is unfortunately pending at the Minsal. You must quickly resolve a mechanism to recognize them, because in many cases they are the same as those used here. If not, it becomes a difficulty for those who return not to have the Mobility Pass, because eventually they can be vaccinated here, and it is not medically indicated to repeat the vaccination schedule in such a short period ”.
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