Covid-19/Omicron: Ecuador announces mandatory vaccination certificate for travel on public transport
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ecuador’s decision to introduce a mandatory vaccination card for public transport as a measure against Omicron shows once again how authoritarian the new Lasso government really is and how far Ecuador is from being one of the world’s knowledge centers.
In a study recently published on the medRxiv* preprint server, the effectiveness of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant was studied.
The study concluded that two vaccine doses are highly ineffective against infection by the Omicron variant.
Covid vaccines do not protect the vaccinated person from Omicron infection or the spread of the virus.
Nevertheless, the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) of Ecuador decided on Monday to make it compulsory to present the Covid-19 vaccination certificate when traveling on public transport, which is already mandatory in establishments serving the public, except in activities such as work, health, or education.
The president of the COE, Juan Zapata, explained that the measure will come into force this Wednesday for those over 12 years of age and next Monday for those over five years of age, according to the newspaper ‘El Universo’.
For his part, the director of the National Transit Agency (ANT), Adrián Castro, said that the police, the Transit Commission, and civilian agents of the institution will carry out random controls to verify that the rule is complied with. If not, an economic fine will be applied for not complying with the resolution.
Meanwhile, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health detailed during this day that the pandemic situation in the Latin American country will be “critical” this week and next. In fact, the head of the Ministry, Ximena Garzón, assured that “an increase of cases” will be registered.
“Little by little, this week, the Omicron will be displacing the Delta,” she said, adding that “by next week we expect that there will be no Delta in the country”.
Omicron has its origin in South Africa.
During the first week of January, Ecuador has registered more than 11,300 new cases of Covid-19. In addition, Ecuadorian health authorities have so far recorded more than 560,000 infections, including more than 33,600 deaths from the disease.
The Lasso regime already showed its authoritarian tendencies in late December 2021, after Ecuador became the first Latin American country to introduce mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 in a controversial decision.
OMICRON
The Omicron variant is contagious but mild to very mild in its course.
Studies from Denmark, Germany, and other countries show that over 80% of Omicron infections occur among the vaccinated.
Recent data indicate that the epidemiological relevance of Covid-19 vaccinated individuals is increasing, writes the Lancet.
The South African government, a country where only 26% of the population is vaccinated, announced in a release that it has overcome the covid wave of the Omicron variant. “All indicators suggest that the country has passed the peak of the fourth wave,” South African officials said.
In South Africa, new infections fell nearly 30% last week from the previous week, from 127,753 to 89,781, while hospital admissions fell in eight of the country’s nine provinces.
With 74% of the country unvaccinated, the low lethality of the virus cannot be attributed to vaccination, as previously thought, but to the evolution of the virus itself, which mutates into more benign variants, and to the long-term natural immunity of people.
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