Luis Escobar / La Paz
The application of the first doses of the vaccine fell by half and the Government is negotiating the relaxation of supreme decrees 4640 and 4641, which require the presentation of the immunization card to enter public and private institutions.
In December, the Government approved Decree 4641, which converts the Covid-19 vaccination card into an official national, portable, verifiable, secure and free document. As of that date, the application of the doses rose from 10,000 daily to 40,000.
In January, when the norm came into force, the application for the card triggered vaccination levels until reaching the application of 96,000 first doses per day, as happened on January 6. That same night, the Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, and other government authorities postponed the validity of the presentation of the document until January 26.
On Friday, January 7, the number of citizens who received the first dose was 77,000. On Monday it dropped to 60,000, considering that different protests of an anti-vaccine movement were held in the country that day. On Tuesday, the number of immunized dropped to 50,000, on Wednesday to 40,000 and on Thursday it reached 53,000, almost half of what was recorded exactly a week ago.
These radical sectors that oppose the presentation of the vaccine in financial entities, schools, banks and other places threatened the Government with the blockade of roads as of Monday. Given this scenario, the Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, said yesterday that he is negotiating with these groups and is open to making the rule more flexible.
“We are in the middle of the negotiation process with the organizations and instances mobilized to -first- listen to them and based on that see the possibility of making this supreme decree more flexible, with the exception of incorporating all the concerns that these sectors have and of the same This way we have the possibility of protecting the health of the Bolivian people,” said Auza.
The minister “congratulated” the “will” and “responsibility” of citizens who, “despite not having the card requirement, these days, they were going to vaccination centers and points. We did not go below 100,000 doses in one day and now we are approaching this figure, with 90,000 doses administered in one day,” he said. This figure corresponds to the application of first and second doses, reinforcements and inoculants administered to minors.
MAS assemblyman Juanito Angulo said that “possibly there will be a relaxation (of the decree), for example, not asking for or demanding the vaccination card in banks for the collection of land and rents.”
Toño Siñani, leader of the unions of the city of El Alto, said that his sector asked that the vaccine not be mandatory for children, that it not be a requirement for the elderly and for people with underlying diseases.
“Tupac’s companions marched because their parents and grandparents couldn’t collect their rent. Those with underlying disease could not pay their credits. That is the main thing,” said the leader, who, despite opposing immunization, acknowledged that he was vaccinated with the Janssen vaccine on July 27, 2021. “As a leader I must set the example (of getting vaccinated), but I cannot subject my colleagues to the vaccine, I cannot decide for them,” he assured.
They describe the easing as “backward”
Mayor Iván Arias described the possibility of making the vaccination card requirement more flexible. On the contrary, the mayor asked the Government to help in the authorization of more vaccination centers.
“Now I have heard some government authorities who say they are going to relax. I don’t understand them, first they take out a measurement, then they back it down to the 26th and now they leave us in the dark,” Arias said.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Freddy Mamani, said on Wednesday that the Executive is analyzing the possibility of “relaxing” supreme decrees 4640 and 4641, which establish the compulsory nature of the vaccination card.
“We are looking at how we are going to coordinate, how we are going to make it more flexible and how we will make it more comfortable so that greater problems of requiring a license cannot be generated,” he said.
