Verónica Zapana S. / La Paz
The Ministry of Health, the nine departmental health services and the municipal authorities concluded that the vaccination certificate will be a requirement to enter closed spaces. The measure is part of the resolutions that were defined in a meeting that was held yesterday in the city of La Paz.
“Request the vaccination certificate in coordination with the departmental health services and the departmental education services for activities that involve closed spaces and activities that involve crowding of people,” said the director of Health Networks of the ministry of the area yesterday, Igor Pardo, regarding one of the first conclusions of the meeting.
Pardo explained that this determination is one of the 29 conclusions of the national coordination meeting against the fourth wave, within the framework of the National Plan to Fight Covid-19. This meeting was held yesterday with mayors and representatives of the Venues.
As another conclusion, the authorities defined coordination with churches in the country “to improve vaccination coverage.”
The Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, explained that these conclusions have the possibility of “being translated” into an instruction manual and in this way, each Headquarters will be able to send the determinations to their health networks for their respective compliance.
According to Auza, this coordination work has the goal of vaccinating 30% of the population between five and 17 years of age.
The meeting also defined that vaccination is part of the biosafety protocols. “For this, the ministry is committed to updating the macro biosafety protocol and the Headquarters must apply the same guidelines in their territorial spaces,” the document reads.
In the conclusions, vaccination is considered voluntary. And that is why, to enter public spaces, the presentation of the result of a negative PCR test is established with up to 48 hours of taking the sample if the person rejects the immunization.
These and other provisions are adopted due to the increase in cases in the fourth wave of the pandemic.
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“Since the last departmental COE we had, we continue to rise (in covid cases), so in the next meeting to be held on Tuesday, some measures will be taken in accordance with the situation we are experiencing,” said Carlos Hurtado, epidemiology manager of the Santa Cruz headquarters.
Hurtado indicated that these measures will be carried out “always in favor of the population of the department” because there is a part of the people who do not want to be vaccinated and do not comply with biosafety measures. “That is why we continue to increase the number of cases, so we expect to reach the peak in the next two weeks,” he explained, adding that the positivity rate reached 23%.
Tarija is another of the departments that has registered an increase since November. The departmental COE determined in recent days to assume some restrictions, such as the use of biosafety measures for graduation events with an efficient control system and the requirement of the vaccination card in spaces with concentrations of people.
The director of the Tarija Headquarters, Álvaro Justiniano, said that there will be “restriction of circulation hours from 12:00 to 4:00”. It is recommended to avoid leaving people over 60 years of age and with underlying diseases.
The director of the Chuquisaca Headquarters, César Ríos, explained that the increase in cases is due to the fact that the population has relaxed in complying with biosafety measures and many people are not even looking for the vaccine.
Ríos assured that in that department the cases did not increase considerably. “They have been at a single level for several weeks,” Ríos said. He added that to avoid infections at the end of the year parties, there must be some restrictions such as the mandatory use of a chinstrap.
The meeting between the Government and the Headquarters determined to provide more information on the vaccine, provide tests and medicines to care for infected people.
The meeting of authorities and objectives
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Meeting The Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, met yesterday with mayors and representatives of the departmental health services (Sedes) to coordinate measures against the fourth wave.
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Target According to the Minister of Health, this meeting defines goals to be met by the regions. For this goal – according to the authority – it is important to know the context of what is happening in the country in the fight against Covid-19.
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Health The Vice Minister of Autonomies, Álvaro Ruiz, said that the Government guaranteed medicines, nasal antigen tests and vaccines to protect the health of the population, but indicated that this aspect will be possible if a close level of coordination with subnational governments is maintained.
