Chile begins application of fourth dose against COVID-19

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera kicked off the application of the fourth dose against COVID-19 on Monday at a time when there is a constant rise in new daily infections.

Piñera was present when Miguel and Teresa, two adults with immunosuppression problems, characteristic of those who undergo dialysis or have been transplanted, were inoculated with the fourth dose in a hospital in the eastern part of the Chilean capital.

The president pointed out that of the 4,000 new daily infections that the country currently has, “we believe that they may reach 10,000, even more, and that is why we are preparing, starting this fourth dose very early.” Since the beginning of the pandemic, the maximum number of cases in a day in Chile was registered in April with 9,171 infected.

Chile kept contagions under control for several months until the beginning of January, when new cases began to rise slightly but steadily. Last weekend it exceeded 4,000 infected -the highest figure since July of last year- although the deaths continue to be around 20 daily. The last week the new cases were 87% more than the previous week.

The immunization phase of the immunosuppressed will conclude on February 7, when the vaccination of those over 55 years of age who have completed six months since they received the third dose will begin.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently criticized countries that are starting the application of a fourth dose such as Israel, which began to do so a week ago. The director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, affirmed that “reinforcement after reinforcement, these few countries will not put an end to the pandemic as long as there are millions of unimmunized people in the rest of the world.”

Piñera said that he understands the concern of the WHO because “the distribution in the world has not been equitable”, but “the responsibility of a president is to first protect his own compatriots and because this wave has been very devastating … we have to do everything in our power to protect our people ”, he added.

Chile, with a population of 19 million people, has received 49 million doses, which ensures the application of a fourth dose.

92% of residents in Chile completed the primary two-dose schedule and 11.5 million received the third. Almost six million children and adolescents, ages 3 to 17, have the first vaccine and several the second.

The country had planned to start with the fourth dose in February, but the strong increase in infections among its neighboring countries – Argentina, Bolivia and Peru – led it to advance the process. According to official figures, those infected with the new omicron variant are around 1,000.

Chile has registered 1.8 million infections since the start of the pandemic and just over 39,000 deaths, according to health authorities.