Peru announces a new unified and massive vaccination plan

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru will implement from this Friday a new unified and massive vaccination plan against covid-19, which in its first stage will immunize all adults over 80 years of age in Lima, informed President Francisco Sagasti.

The intention of this new plan against the pandemic in the country is to immunize all 4.3 million older adults in Peru “before the end of Sagasti’s government” next July 28.

In parallel to the elderly, whose immunization began last March for those over 80 years of age, health personnel, military, police, and firefighters, who are part of the first line of combat against the disease, will also be vaccinated.

PHASES OF THE PLAN

The governor indicated that the plan will continue later with adults aged 70 to 79 and then from 60 to 69, and will be applied with a “territorial approach”, which will prioritize the localities “that have a higher risk in terms of infection and death”.

“We started this process in Lima and Callao, and then we will continue to expand it throughout the national territory,” he said before recalling that the Pfizer vaccine, of which the country has purchased 20.5 million, require a “rigorous” cold chain.

For this reason, he announced that they also plan to distribute “mainly throughout the national territory” more than one million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine that will arrive in the country through the Covax Facility mechanism.

RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGE

Sagasti remarked that Peru is “ready to respond to the logistical challenge of significantly increasing the number of vaccinated people” and informed that the first million vaccines from the Chinese laboratory Sinopharm that Peru received last February have already been used 98% in their first dose and 77% in the second one.

“We are going to finish using a million doses on schedule, before the end of the month, before April 30,” he said.

The President reiterated that his country would receive in May another 2.8 million doses from Pfizer, one million more than initially announced, after having managed to get the pharmaceutical company to increase the shipment by half a million and have purchased an additional half a million.

Peru will also receive this month some 276,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine delivered by the Covax Facility, and in May, 1,090,000 doses from that laboratory.

“I STAND SHOULDER TO SHOULDER”

The new campaign has been launched through the digital platform “Pongo el hombro”, which is the slogan used by the Government to inform citizens that everyone over 18 years of age in the country will be vaccinated “before the end of the year”.

“This platform will allow knowing where and when to get vaccinated, to which group it corresponds, and it will be done according to age and residence criteria”, explained the President before highlighting that there will be “a unique digital tool, unlike the first stage of the vaccination process where vaccination was done by institution”.

In this way, he said, “something quite difficult and elusive” during Peruvian history has been achieved, which is “to unify the provision of health services through the different mechanisms that the State has”, among which are the Ministry of Health, the social security system, and the military and police health system, in addition to private health services.

With the single platform, the President added, it will be possible “to serve the population in a much better, more efficient, faster and more satisfactory way”.

COMMITMENT TO IMMUNIZATION

The President reiterated his government’s “commitment” to vaccinate all 4.3 million adults over 60 years of age in the country before the end of his administration and announced that during this process, “those under 60 years of age who have medical conditions that make them vulnerable” will be incorporated progressively.

He assured that although Peru already has contracts to receive 48 million doses of vaccines this year, he continues to negotiate with laboratories such as Johnson & Johnson, Sinopharm, Gamaleya, and Moderna “to obtain as many vaccines as possible”.

“Before the end of the year, we will have enough vaccines, and we will have launched a vaccination process that will allow all 24 million Peruvians over the age of 18 to be vaccinated before the end of December,” he concluded.

Peru is currently facing the onslaught of the second wave of the pandemic, which has left 1,659,707 cases and 55,489 deaths. In contrast, many hospitals’ care capacity has been overwhelmed since, as of Tuesday, there were 15,183 hospitalized patients, 2,599 of whom were in intensive care units (ICU).