Luis Escobar / La Paz
In La Paz and El Alto, at least eight massive immunization points close their doors due to absenteeism and the population’s lack of interest in receiving the inoculant. The Departmental Health Service (Headquarters) warned of a drop from 43,000 to less than 1,000 daily doses.
In addition, Headquarters reported that “only” first-level and mobile health centers will remain to continue with the immunization campaign.
“We closed the vaccination point that was on the outskirts of the Sedes de La Paz, in Plaza Bolivia,” said the director of the Sedes La Paz, Mayber Aparicio. “No one attends these points and we only leave the one at the National School of Nursing (on Federico Suazo Avenue). It is the only point where they are vaccinating because there are no people who demand the doses, ”said the authority.
The massive vaccination points that closed are: the Military School of Engineering (EMI) of Irpavi, the Franz Tamayo University, the Monoblock of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), Infocal of El Alto, the Public University of El Alto ( UPEA) and the one in Plaza Bolivia. The Methodist and La Paz hospitals are added to the list.
For the immunization campaign -according to Headquarters- the mobile points will continue to operate, such as those installed in the San Pedro and San Francisco squares, in addition to the first-level health centers in the city of La Paz.
These massive points were reopened after the great demand of citizens who sought the doses after the approval of Supreme Decree 4641. This rule required the presentation of the vaccination card or the PCR test to enter public and private entities.
“The vaccination process, in adults, is not improving because the need to present the card to enter closed environments was postponed again. There is no longer a large population queuing because people do not see (immunization) as a necessity,” Aparicio said.
According to the director of Sedes La Paz, when the decrees were in force, the brigades vaccinated -on average- up to 45,000 people daily. “On the other hand, now we do not vaccinate even 1,000,” he said. “We consider that all the people who voluntarily got vaccinated and want to take care of their health, have already done so,” he assured and indicated that the other citizens have already been summoned to attend the immunization points and thus cannot enter intensive care in case of infections.
Aparicio said that the treatments in the ICU are “long and prolonged” and that 60% of the people who are currently hospitalized do not have a single dose of the vaccine.
From Sucre, the Minister of Health, Jeyson Auza, called for “extreme efforts” to increase vaccination. “To date we have achieved very good levels of vaccination. In just two weeks (before the postponement of the decree) we vaccinated nearly two million people”, he stated.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, until Thursday, 11.4 million vaccines were applied. Of these, 5.5 million correspond to the first dose; four million to the second, 796 thousand to the booster and 994 thousand to the Janssen single-dose.
“To date we have achieved encouraging vaccination percentages. Let’s go to the vaccination centers, it is not necessary a measure that forces us to go (…)”, said Auza, who visited Sucre to deliver six high-tech intensive care units. The authority hopes that the beds will not be used, but a note from the entity indicates that “it is also necessary to be prepared for the worst scenario.” The equipment that was delivered to Chuquisaca has an investment of 2,627,798 bolivianos. They are “the most complete” and are also used in hospitals abroad.
