RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Today, Chile celebrates four months since the beginning of one of the fastest and most praised vaccination processes against the coronavirus in the world; however, the pandemic is still unleashed, the intensive care units are 97% saturated, and contagions continue to increase.
The longed-for return to normality is still far off despite having vaccinated more than 53% of the target population with two doses and 72% with one dose, equivalent to almost 11 of the 19 million inhabitants.
“We have a very demanding hospital system, with very high occupancy (…) What we have to do is to increase vaccination among the groups lagging and ask for the collaboration of the clinics to increase their beds”, warned the Chilean Minister of Health, Enrique Paris.
In the last 24 hours, Chile once again exceeded 8,000 new infections, one of the highest figures of the entire pandemic, which shows that the country has not managed to leave behind the serious second wave that began in March, after the southern summer vacations.
Despite vaccination, neither infections nor admissions to intensive care units are decreasing. There are less than 150 free beds in intensive care units throughout the country, and today more than 3,200 serious patients have been registered on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health defended that vaccination has indeed managed to reduce the number of deaths, from 200 per day on average during the first wave of the pandemic (in June and July 2020) to 120 in the last few days.
“We are going through the worst moment, with tired teams and the health network overwhelmed (…) A change in the governance of the pandemic is required,” said the president of the Medical Association, Izkia Siches.
SUSPENSION OF ASTRAZENECA IN YOUNG PEOPLE
On the same day, the temporary suspension of the administration of second doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in young people under 45 years of age was announced after a case of thrombosis was detected in a 31-year-old man.
AstraZeneca’s vaccine, of which 326,560 doses have been administered in Chile, was approved in April for emergency use in women over 55 years of age and men over 18 years of age.
Chile also authorized that of the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, the most widely used in the country and from which it has received around 18 million doses; that of Pfizer/BioNTech, from which 4 million doses arrived, and that of the Chinese laboratory CanSino, from which it bought 1.8 million.
Experts point to early and diversified negotiation and the extensive primary care network as key factors in the speed of immunization, which has already been made available voluntarily to everyone over 25 years of age and healthcare workers, the chronically ill, and essential workers.
QUARANTINES AND FIRST DAYS OF VACCINATION CARDS
The increase in cases has led the authorities to quarantine a dozen neighborhoods starting next week. Several of them in the capital, Santiago, which had managed to abandon the confinement decreed in March for more than 90% of the population.
Since then, Chile has maintained border closures, a curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., and closed cinemas, museums, and sports facilities in most of the country.
In the midst of this scenario, a vaccination card has been issued, granting greater freedoms to those who have completed their vaccination schedule 14 days ago or more. This allows travel between regions, except for those who live in confined neighborhoods.
The measure was not without controversy: while for some, it represents a respite after the strict quarantines that triggered mental health indicators and put an end to thousands of businesses, others, especially voices from the medical community, consider that it is not the right epidemiological moment.
“We are experiencing a drastic increase in cases, and this measure could involve many more complications than benefits,” the secretary-general of the Chilean Medical Association (Colmed), Jose Miguel Bernucci, explained to Efe.
“There is still uncertainty regarding the circulation of variants such as the Brazilian or Andean, and we should remain cautious,” added Nicolás Muena, a virologist at the Fundación Ciencia y Vida (Science and Life Foundation).