The indigenous population in Ecuador was the one that least accessed vaccination against COVID-19, as of December 2021, according to a government investigation

1.3 million Ecuadorians, 8% of the total population of 17.9 million, as of December 2021 they had no interest in get vaccinated against COVID-19.

It is one of the conclusions of the research “Characteristics of the population infected and not vaccinated against COVID-19”, applied by the Ecuadorian Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) within the survey of employment, unemployment and underemployment.

A bank of questions was applied to people in 27,048 homes randomly in urban and rural areas in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Machala and Ambato. It was carried out between October and December of last year.

The reasons for not getting immunized against the virus were the following: has side effectsis not in favor of vaccines, are not effective that he COVID-19 is not dangerous or that the person had already overcome it.

In addition 2.2 million people, 13.5% were interested in being inoculated, but they still did not do it because it was not their turn, due to a medical indication, because they did not know the vaccination point, because they did not have the mobilization to go, because of an excessive wait, because of inconvenient hours or because they did not want to get a certain vaccine.

At the end of last year, 14.2 million, 79.3% of the total population, manifested not having been infected and 3.5 million, 19.4%, yes.

As of that date, 79% of the population, that is, 13 million, had already been inoculated.

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Roberto Castillo, executive director of INEC, explained That while 20% of the population with the highest income exceeded 90% in coverage of the vaccination scheme, the bottom 20% had not yet done so.

He added that among Afro-Ecuadorians, montuvios and mestizos the levels of coverage were almost the same, but in the indigenous population, until December 2021, about half of its population had not been inoculated. He attributed it to a cultural aspect.

There was less coverage in the rural zone and especially in the Amazon region, where logistical access is complicated and there are scattered territories, he said.

The Sierra had more coverage than the coast.

He clarified that the investigation it does not include infections that could have occurred with the omicron variant. The entity will continue to carry out these studies in the coming months. (I).