Chile begins vaccination for minors between three and five years of age

Chilean health authorities announced this Monday the start of vaccination for children between three and five years old against COVID-19, a measure that will benefit more than 700,000 minors throughout the country.

“This vaccine, in addition to protecting children, also protects their parents, their mothers and their families, and allows children to play with greater safety, to be able to recreate, to be able to have fun, to be able to be children with that tranquility that the be protected”Said the Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera.

The inoculation process, in which the Coronavac vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac will be used, was highlighted by the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, as a “very important advance”, Exceeding goals set by the government itself, in the words of the Secretary of State.

Chile has deployed one of the most successful mass vaccination processes in the world, with 90.7% of the population inoculated with a complete scheme -that is, two doses or a single dose-, being also the country that has administered the largest number of booster doses according to the University of Oxford.

About eight million people have already received an additional injection, out of a total of 15 million inhabitants that make up the target population.

The most widely used vaccine is CoronaVac, although Pfizer-BioNtech, AstraZeneca and Cansino are also administered to a lesser extent.

The pandemic, which had its most serious peak between last March and June and forced 90% of the population to be confined once again, has been under control for more than three months, although with slight rebounds that have not yet set off alarms.

First case of omicron

Last Saturday, however, the first case of the omicron variant in the South American country was detected in Valparaíso, for which the authorities called, especially to the laggards, to be vaccinated to increase security against this mutation of the virus .

To date, the Ministry of Health (Minsal) reported the detection of 1,517 new infections by COVID-19, reaching a total of 11,277 patients in the active stage of the disease -with contagion capacity-.

On the other hand, the Department of Statistics and Information of the Minsal reported the death of 30 people in the last day, raising the number of deaths to 38,531 confirmed since the beginning of the health emergency.

The country, which reached 1.77 million infected, enjoys few restrictions compared to the rest of the health crisis, without a curfew or quarantines and with all shops, bars and restaurants open.

Vaccinated foreigners can enter the country since last October through four airports.