The Ombudsman’s Office presented this Wednesday the results of the report “Risks to the health and life of people due to the lack of vaccination against COVID-19”, as a result of nationwide supervision. It alerts that more than 13 million 122 thousand people over the age of 18 have not received the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
Given this situation, Alicia Abanto, deputy for the State Administration of the entity, mentioned in a press conference that the Government must “reinvigorate the vaccination process with innovative measures”, Well, those announced so far “are not enough”.
Among the main demands of the Ombudsman to the Central Government, Abanto stressed that the Executive, and not only the Minsa, must lead a multisectoral and intergovernmental reaction so that the entire population has the three doses.
One measure proposed is the modification of Supreme Decree 016-2022-PCM to establish said booster dose as a requirement to enter closed premises and carry out face-to-face work. This for all people over 18 years old and not only from 40 years old.
“The government must change the triumphalist discourse for a realistic one and come out of denial”, Abanto also pointed out.
He also indicated the need to promote a communication campaign “sincere and realistic” about the risks due to the lack of vaccination of millions of people.
In this regard, it is suggestedchange data presentation and state advertising to promote three-dose immunization”. They also propose in this line the categorization of the risk of the districts, based on the protection gap due to lack of immunization.
The Ombudsman’s Office considers that the government must also be honest about the situation of the vaccines that have already expired and those that are about to expire, and “implement a contingency plan to prevent vaccine losses” due to expiration.
Elimination of benefits
The entity demands to modify labor regulations to promote vaccination. For example: the annual hiring of teachers should be conditional on full vaccination.
Likewise, eliminate the benefit of paid leave for unvaccinated public workers, in the event that their work is not compatible with remote work.
It is also proposed to establish as a rule that the presence of university and higher technical studies go hand in hand with the application of the third dose.
Other proposals are budgetary incentives for regional and local governments that show efficient management of resources to promote vaccination coverage in general, and expand the budget and health personnel for vaccination.
Figures of the setback in vaccination
The Ombudsman also showed the decline in immunization against COVID-19, according to the Minsa Reunis database:
-There is a decrease in the daily doses applied in January and February, from 209,590 and 203,952 respectively, to 133,351 doses per day in March, which represents 35% less compared to February.
-There is a decrease in the application of the third dose in the last three months: in January it was 3 million 969 thousand, in February 2 million 516 thousand, while in March only 1 million 185 thousand (until the 21st).
-On people without protection due to lack of vaccine, the Ombudsman found that 4 million 283 thousand have not received any dose (represents 13% at very high risk), 7 million 118 thousand have not received the second dose (represent 21.7% of very high risk) and 13 million 122 thousand do not have the third booster dose, that is, 52.56% at high risk.
The regions of Amazonas and Madre de Dios do not even reach 70% of people with a dose.
