Israel did it before. Chile today became the second country in the world to start applying the fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
Chile became the second country in the world this Monday, after Israel, to start applying the fourth dose of the vaccine against covid-19, at a time when the omicron variant and the high mobility of the Christmas holidays have triggered infections.
Immunosuppressed people are the first to receive the second booster dose, although From February 7 the vaccination will be extended to those over 55 years of age who have completed six months since your previous injection.
“Vaccines, with the passage of time, lose their effectiveness, the protection they generate decreases and the new variants also make them lose strength. And that is why it is very important to be prepared, to anticipate,” said Chilean President Sebastián Piñera .
The conservative president, who will leave power on March 11, assured that the fourth vaccine “increases by 20 times the protection that a person has compared to another who does not have a complete vaccination.”
Up to 10,000 daily cases
The pandemic, which had its most serious peak between last March and June and forced 90% of the population to be confined once again, had been under control for several months, but the Christmas holidays and the arrival of the omicron variant have somewhat complicated the situation.
“Today the world is being devastated by the new omicron variant. There are weeks in which we have had more than 100 million cases in the world,” Piñera recalled.
Chile, where since the beginning of the pandemic 1.8 million infections and more than 39,200 deaths have been registered, last Saturday surpassed the barrier of 4,000 new daily cases for the first time in seven months, while the national rate of positivity climbed to 5.3%, after months below 3%.
Piñera pointed out that “it is likely” that in a few days the new daily infections will exceed 10,000, a mark that was not even reached in the worst moments of the pandemic.
“The most important thing is that these infections are going to be milder and, therefore, the number of people requiring hospitalization will probably also increase, but much less ”, said the president.
WHO criticism
Chile has carried out one of the most successful inoculation campaigns in the world, with more than 92% of the population (19 million inhabitants) with a complete two-dose or single-dose vaccination scheme and with more than 11.3 million of booster doses applied.
The most widely used vaccine is CoronaVac, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, although Pfizer / BioNtech, AstraZeneca and Cansino are also administered to a lesser extent.
However, there are still 1.6 million people who have not taken the third dose and who suffer mobility restrictions since last January 1, among which the prohibition to access the interior of bars and restaurants stands out.
Piñera called “stubborn” those who have not yet been vaccinated and said that “they are committing irresponsibility”: “The vaccine is safe, it is effective and, if they do not get vaccinated, they will become infected and they will infect their families” added.
On January 2, Israel became the first country in the world to start applying the fourth dose of the vaccine, something that the Dominican Republic will also do in the coming weeks and that nations such as Germany and the United Kingdom are considering.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, criticized last week the nations that are going to bet on the fourth dose when there are “109 countries in the world that will not be able to meet the goal of having the 70% of its population vaccinated by mid-2022 ″.
“The essence of the disparity is that some countries are proceeding with a fourth vaccination, while others have not even been able to vaccinate their health workers,” he added.
In this regard, Piñera assured that Chile, which has donated vaccines and medical supplies to neighboring countries such as Paraguay and Ecuador, “has always been willing to collaborate, but the responsibility of a president is to protect his own compatriots first.” (I)
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