Chile will apply the fourth dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 from February

Chilean health authorities confirmed last Wednesday that they will apply the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from the fortnight of February next year.

As La Tercera describes, the Minister of Health (Minsal), Enrique Paris, told Duna radio that “We have calculated that after February 15, we will start with the fourth dose, with selected groups, as we did at the beginning of the vaccination: older adults, health personnel, people with comorbidity, who are the ones that get worse.”

It also pointed out that the Chief of Epidemiology of the Minsal, Rafael Araos, is in charge of a study regarding the immunity offered by vaccines when they act against the coronavirus.

“We think that if this coincides with a group that has been vaccinated six months ago, plus 14 days, we will vaccinate in February”he noted during his interview.

The minister also stressed that they continue with the greatest efforts to vaccinate the entire population possible; this from the meeting held by the president Sebastian Piñera with the elected Gabriel Boric, with a view to delivering the mandate of functions on March 11.

“We have a lot of Pfizer now, also AstraZeneca, and we can access Sinovac. There are studies that show that Sinovac is working very well against Ómicron, for example, so we have vaccines available ”, acknowledged.

On the other hand, Paris confirmed that they have registered at least 117 cases of contagion of the variant omicron in the country, but that none had complications. “None of these patients so far, has had a negative evolution, neither in mechanical ventilation nor in the ICU”, he pointed.

-Reopening of borders-

As announced by the AFP agency, the government Chilean announced this Monday the reopening of 10 land borders with Argentina and Peru, closed for almost two years due to the pandemic of the COVID-19, but under strict requirements for visitors.

“Just as today we have the crossing enabled at the airports of Iquique, Antofagasta, Metropolitan Region, Punta Arenas and cruise ships are arriving, now it is the turn to enable the land border crossings”, explained the undersecretary of Tourism, José Luis Uriarte, during the report on the situation of the pandemic in Chile.

Foreigners entering Chile across these borders they will have to homologate their complete vaccination process, access a sworn statement, have health insurance and, when they arrive, they will undergo a PCR test, explained Uriarte.

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