RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “With this sustained and accelerated increase in the number of cases, the second wave is already a fact,” said Vizzotti in a press conference.
The minister indicated that “what is happening in Argentina does not exceed the global context”, mentioning the increase of cases that led to strict confinements in the northern hemisphere and the stress and overload of the health system in neighboring countries.
This Tuesday afternoon, the national government’s political and sanitary authorities of the province of Buenos Aires and the Argentine capital will meet again after meeting yesterday to make a diagnosis of the situation and seek an agreement on new restrictions.
According to the minister, the aim is to apply “intensive, transitory, early and geographically localized measures to reduce people’s circulation”.
Meanwhile, she indicated that “they have to be implemented without impacting” on productive, commercial, and leisure activities, where she said it had been demonstrated that “they are not a source of infection”, that they do not impact “on the attendance of classes” and “taking into account the tiredness of the society”.
“These are three weeks of a greater effort” to vaccinate the population at risk, said Vizzotti, and appealed to individual behavior by saying that “it is false” that someone young and healthy is not at risk.
TIME TO VACCINATE
Vizzotti said that the aim is to vaccinate the at-risk population, fundamentally those over 60 years of age, and especially those over 70 years of age and people between 18 and 59 years of age with risk conditions. According to her, the target population reaches 15 million people, when 7 million people over 60 years of age are added to the strategic personnel.
Meanwhile, the country has received 7.27 million vaccines from different suppliers, and, according to official data, 4,404,175 doses have been applied. “The possibility of increasing vaccination per day and week in the jurisdictions is possible,” she said.
Meanwhile, according to the minister, more than 90% of the health system personnel have been vaccinated with one dose, and almost 60% have received the complete scheme. And 55.6 % of those over 80 years of age have received a dose, and 40.7 % of the population between 70 and 79 years of age have started the vaccination program.
In this context of accelerated infections, the arrival of autumn, and the shortage of vaccines, the Government has decided to postpone applying the second dose three months after the first dose to vaccinate a larger number of people and reduce mortality.
In the meantime, the government evaluates measures to “reduce transmission and vaccinate those who are dying the most” to lower mortality and put less strain on the health system.
For the Minister, the current system “is not the health system of March 2020”, at the beginning of the pandemic, since the number of intensive care beds has increased by 50%, the number of ventilators by 60% and the health team has more experience in handling the virus. Still, she warned that it is “essential not to stress the health system” because the personnel “are fatigued”.
Argentina has accumulated 2,407,159 positive cases since the pandemic began and 56,471 deaths.