Chile has deployed one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, with 92.6% of the population already vaccinated.
This Monday the Chilean government announced the purchase of two million Moderna vaccines against the coronavirus while awaiting approval by the Institute of Public Health, amid a massive rise in cases due to the spread of the omicron variant in recent days.
“The vaccine protects, but over time the protection begins to weaken, and when new variants such as omicron appear, it is prudent to give an additional reinforcement to improve the protection of the health and life of our compatriots, we are doing this today with the fourth dose,” President Sebastián Piñera said from Santiago.
To date, Chile has deployed one of the most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, with 92.6% of the target population — more than 15 million people — inoculated with two doses or a single dose and 11 million booster vaccinations already managed.
As of the second week of February, as explained by the health authorities, a fourth dose will begin to be applied with a “heterologous scheme”, which consists of combining different vaccines and which, according to the Minister of Health, Enrique Paris, has shown ” to be successful”.
Chile thus joins Israel, the first country in the world to bet on the fourth dose, which will begin to apply it to people over 60 years of age and to health workers when four months have passed since the third injection.
For the vaccination campaign, doses from the Sinovac laboratory have been used, but also Pfizer, AstraZeneca and CanSino.
Moderna, like the dose from the European laboratory Pfizer, is a vaccine that uses mRNA, one of the most advanced technologies in the world for the development of immunity in subjects; According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it has an efficacy of 94.1% 14 days after applying a first dose.
Piñera also pointed out that there is already coordination on the matter with the president-elect, Gabriel Boric.
“We have discussed this with the President Elect, to see what happens after the fourth dose. We do not know what will happen, but we are anticipating and talking with the laboratories so that, if necessary, Chileans can count on all the vaccines that are useful, effective and necessary,” he said.
Chile, which has more than 1.9 million infections and more than 39,000 confirmed deaths since the start of the pandemic, enjoys wide freedoms, has had its borders open since October and does not register any municipality in total quarantine. (I)
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