Uruguay expects to vaccinate some 200 people living on the street

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Some 200 people living on the streets could be vaccinated this Thursday in Montevideo, according to the estimate of the authorities of the Uruguayan Ministries of Public Health (MSP) and Social Development (Mides), who has organized a day of inoculation against covid-19 for this group.

Fernanda Auersperg, national director of Social Protection at Mides, explained that three mobile teams are traveling the streets of the Uruguayan capital to take those who wish to be vaccinated – since vaccination is voluntary in Uruguay – to the posts set up at La Trama and the Casa de las Ciudadanas, two-day centers of the Intendencia (regional government) of Montevideo (IMM).

Auersperg confirmed that the vaccine that these people will receive would be Pfizer, since “as they are an outdoor population, they were defined as a priority group, because only the first dose has a high level of immunity” and, therefore, if they were not located for the administration of the second dose, there was already “a fairly high percentage of coverage”.

For her part, Tamara Paseyro, director of Social Policies of the IMM, recalled the commitment of the local Administration “in locating these people, who frequent the same places or spaces”, intending to ensure their presence to receive the second dose, scheduled for June 10.

“This population that attends the day centers comes frequently. We have been working with this population and will continue to do so,” he said.

Shortly after the opening of the day center, the Minister of Social Development, Martín Lema, who replaced the previous Minister, Pablo Bartol, on May 3, visited the facilities and told the press that his portfolio intends to “evaluate if another day center is not necessary” depending on the demand generated.

Lema highlighted the coordinated work of the authorities of the MSP, Mides, and IMM with the National Emergency System (Sinae) for the development of a day like this.

Uruguay had previously vaccinated people with this degree of vulnerability in Mides shelters, but this time the emphasis was placed on those outdoors, said the head of Mides.

This Wednesday, the South American country exceeded 25% of its population inoculated with the two doses.

According to the CoronavirusUY application, developed by the MSP, at 10.25 local time (13.25 GMT) this Thursday, Uruguay has 2,144,143 doses applied, which is reflected in that 35.95% of the total population received at least the first dose of Sinovac, Pfizer, or AstraZeneca while 25.21% have completed the inoculation.