The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) assured that Nicaragua will receive 657,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines during the first half of 2022, which will be added to the 5,193,000 doses of serum sent to the country through the COVAX Mechanism, Jarbas Barbosa confirmed. , deputy director of PAHO.
From February 23, 2021 to January 2022, Nicaragua has accumulated 15.4 million vaccines from eight different sera. The country was in the queue for vaccination against covid-19 in the region, however, with the arrival of donations and the acquisition of millions of vaccines, mainly in the last quarter of 2021, immunization coverage was accelerated.
Barbosa explained that until February 23, Nicaragua has covered 62% of the population with both doses; however, on the PAHO website, the figures indicate that as of February 25, the country had covered 58.9% of the population with the full scheme.
The PAHO authority assured that they continue to work with the Ministry of Health (Minsa) to expand access to immunization to areas with more access difficulties. The expectation is that the country has with 70% of its population protected with the full two-dose schedule in June, he said.
According to the vice president, Rosario Murillo, in her speech this Tuesday, almost 86% of the Nicaraguan population over two years of age is immunized against the pandemic, but she did not clarify what percentage corresponds to a dose, complete scheme and reinforcement. Meanwhile, the Minsa maintains daily vaccination brigades that visit neighborhoods in different areas of the country, although they do not report the extent of immunization by department.
Contrary to other countries, since the beginning of the pandemic, the Minsa has never provided a detailed report on infections, deaths and the progress of vaccination against covid-19 in the country, which does not allow knowing the impact that the virus has had in urban, rural and indigenous territories, as well as the actual coverage of the inoculation sessions.
First purchase of WHO-approved vaccines
Nicaragua received a first disbursement of 23,826,673 dollars, from a 100 million dollar loan, granted by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), for the purchase of vaccines against covid-19 and medical supplies.
In this way, the Government acquired through the Revolving Fund of the World Health Organization (WHO), a contract for 2.5 million doses AstraZeneca, of which 1.2 million arrived in the country on December 17, 2021. At the time, Vice President Murillo explained that 15.8 million dollars were invested.
This is the first acquisition of vaccines approved by the WHO by the Daniel Ortega regime, since the previous contracts corresponded to Russian sera -Sputnik V and Light and Cubans -Abdalá and Soberana-, whose emergency use processes are still under development. .
Silence before variants
Although for six consecutive weeks, the Minsa has reported a sustained increase in covid-19 infections, health authorities continue to remain silent about the impact of the variants of concern, including omicron, which is the one that predominates in the country, according to PAHO .
The March 1 report from the Minsa shows a small reduction in cases, going from 109 infections to 101 new positive infections between the last two weeks. In almost two years of pandemic, the Minsa recognizes 226 deaths and the accumulated number of infections throughout the country is 18,503.
