RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – About 30,000 people from neighboring states were immunized in the Rio de Janeiro capital. In most cases, they travel to the city for reasons related to work or family.
Denise, a 56-year-old designer from Rio de Janeiro, has been living in São Paulo since early 2020, and was vaccinated against Covid-19 on Wednesday, in Jardim Botânico, Rio’s south zone. At that time, the city’s vaccination calendar was more than a month ahead of São Paulo’s, and Denise had a trip scheduled to visit her mother. Another 14,700 people living in the state of São Paulo did as the designer.
In total, according to data from Rio’s Municipal Health Secretariat, 3,400,526 individuals have now been vaccinated in Rio de Janeiro. Of this figure, 10.71% came from other cities. Most (8.22%) were from within the state of Rio, and the remainder from other states.
São Paulo is second only to Minas Gerais. There were 16,100 residents of the neighboring state who also decided to be vaccinated in Rio. “The wait (for the vaccine) is very distressing; several people are doing it,” explained Denise. “Several friends from Rio who live in São Paulo, but have family in Rio, came to be vaccinated here.”
It is not exactly vaccine tourism, as is currently occurring in the United States and in some other countries where immunization is more advanced. In most cases, these are people who come to the city for reasons related to work or family.
According to Municipal Health Secretary Daniel Soranz, there is no reason to curb this trend. “This is not what we recommend. Ideally, people should be vaccinated close to their homes,” said the public health specialist.
“But we are not demanding any proof of residence. Our migration is not very high, around 10%, mostly coming from neighboring municipalities. If by chance we have a much higher migration, we may ask for additional doses from the Ministry of Health.”
The goal, according to the secretary, is not to bureaucratize the vaccination process. In Rio, one needs only to present the CPF (Individual Tax Register) to be vaccinated. Until next week, the city will be immunizing people 50 years old with no comorbidities – with the advance of the calendar announced on Sunday, June 13, by Governor João Doria (PSDB), the same should occur in São Paulo.
In Rio, the secretariat also advanced the immunization of health professionals, which was not the case in all cities. In the case of teachers, however, the health secretariat requires the presentation of a professional certificate.
“I’ve been living in São Paulo for 3 years, but I’m from Rio de Janeiro,” explained Diógenes da Silva Severino, a 31 year old teacher. “Although I live in São Paulo, I have a nationwide job, I work at schools in Rio, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul. So I was able to be vaccinated in Rio. By yesterday, at least, it was going to take much longer in São Paulo. But now I think they have now advanced the calendar there too.”
According to Severino, the vaccination process in São Paulo is more bureaucratic than in Rio. “In São Paulo, you have to register on a website, there is a QR code -…. In Rio, everything is much simpler.”
Urgency
According to the Health Secretary, the municipality is working at the limit of stocked doses to expedite the process. “The vaccine was delivered, we administered it. We have virtually nothing in stock, only the second doses,” he said. “We are addressing the issue with the sense of urgency it warrants.”
Public health specialist and member of the committee to fight Covid-19 at UFRJ (Fedeal University of Rio de Janeiro), Chrystina Barros sees no major problems in the exchange. “Since Rio has now managed to successfully cover the elderly, the most vulnerable, I don’t see a problem in vaccinating people who are already here for family or economic reasons,” she said. “They are not competing for resources with the elderly, there is no vaccine shortages for the most vulnerable.”
“We keep hearing stories of new strains circulating, of people who had already taken the first dose and became infected, of those who were about to get the vaccine and died, and it’s a source of great anguish,” justified designer Denise.
Source: Estadão