After eight months of managing a slow and lagged vaccination, Daniel Ortega’s regime changed the strategy, that until now places Nicaragua in the queue for immunization against covid-19 in America. The modification occurred two weeks before the national elections – in which Ortega intends to be reelected without competition – and in a context of massive purchases and donations of vaccines.
“Growing from a dozen to thousands of vaccination posts confirms that the Government of Nicaragua, through the Minsa, had and has the ability to increase vaccination coverage based on its availability and that said opportunity was not previously taken advantage of “, says the epidemiologist Leonel Argüello.
The sessions that took place between March and last September were centralized in the hospitals, which caused extensive lines of people who came to form a day before or who endured rain and sun to access a vaccine.
However, now the Government ordered that the doses against covid-19 be applied in the 1087 health posts and centers throughout the country, in addition to From this Wednesday he ordered that the inoculation days be taken to markets and health fairs.
Despite the fact that the extension of the vaccination points eliminated the extensive lines and favored the working hours of the medical personnel; In these, the vaccination protocols that previously existed were reduced.
As confirmed by CONFIDENCIAL, groups identified with government shirts are the ones who fill out the vaccination card and the informed consent document, in the waiting lines the distancing is not fulfilled, they no longer take the blood pressure, nor do they enter the names in the database and, after applying the dose, it is optional if the person waits in the place whether or not there is a reaction . The staff also does not provide information about the vaccines, their effects, or their level of effectiveness.
“Decentralization is not very useful if it is not accompanied by prevention measures. Regarding this, I have not observed any improvement ”, laments Argüello.
49% coverage?
At the beginning of the vaccination day for those under 30 years of age and for children and adolescents, on October 25, the Government began to publish daily reports in the official media El 19 Digital. In these reports they assure that vaccination coverage until this Thursday, November 4, is 49%.
Nevertheless, Although there are details on the number of people covered by age, it is unknown what is the total number of doses applied, and of those which are single doses, how many first and second doses. This is key to knowing the real percentage of vaccination in the country.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) recommends that, “If multiple vaccines are used in a country with different requirements regarding the doses to be administered, it will be necessary to compare the coverage between products with the last dose protection of each vaccine ”.
In the case of Nicaragua, vaccines are being applied with a one, two and three dose schedule. Therefore, Vaccination coverage must be calculated using the number of people who have already completed their vaccination schedule.
According to PAHO data, updated until October 29, the percentage of Nicaraguans vaccinated with the complete scheme is 6.19% and 16.79% of the population have already received their first dose. The total number of doses applied so far is 1.5 million, divided into seven types of vaccines: Covishield / AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Pfizer, Sputnik Light, Janssen, Abdala and Soberana 02.
The Ortega Government assures that, from October 25 to November 4, they vaccinated 1,660,566 people, totaling 3,141,916 people inoculated, which “is equivalent to 49.06% of the total population aged 2 years and over”, without specifying how many are people vaccinated with Sputnik Light, which only requires one dose.
Internationally, Nicaragua ranks as the second country with the lowest vaccination percentage on the continent. However, this data refers to the fact that it has the lowest percentage of people vaccinated with the complete scheme. This data will rise with the application of single doses and with the administration of second doses to people inoculated before October 8.
Vaccination has dropped
According to official data, this week’s daily vaccination average, compared to last week, has dropped. In the case of pregnant women, puerperal women and infants, during the first five days of the day, they applied an average of 7,800 doses, but this week the number is 1,100.
In children between 2 and 11 years old, the first week an average of 52,200 minors were vaccinated daily, but this week the average is 12,000. In the vaccination of adolescents this pattern is also observed, In the first five days there were an average of 35,700 vaccinated and now the number is 9,000 inoculated daily.
However, the young population between 18 and 29 years of age is being vaccinated to a greater extent during this week. This coincides with the decision of the Minsa to apply first doses of Sputnik Light and AstraZeneca, after it had destined only the Russian vaccines to young people.
According to official information, Nicaragua has 8.4 million vaccines against covid-19. Of this sum, 33.80% correspond to donations, mainly from Spain, and the remaining 66.20% are direct purchases that the regime made to Russia and Cuba. The largest number of vaccines currently available are Sputink Light.
