The Minister of Public Health, Daniel Salinas, revealed this Friday the 13th that next week the fourth dose of Pfizer against COVID-19 will be enabled for people between 18 and 49 years old, especially for those with comorbidities. The hierarch appealed to the responsibility of the population and urged to continue with prevention measures, such as the use of a mask, the ventilation of spaces and hand washing.
In the announcement, made in the auditorium of the Ministry of Public Health (MSP), Salinas was accompanied by the undersecretary of the portfolio, José Luis Satdjian; the General Director of Health, Miguel Asqueta; the director of Epidemiology, Adriana Alfonso, and the director of Immunizations, Gabriel Peluffo. The authorities updated the non-pharmacological recommendations to reduce the circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and reported a new opening of the agenda for vaccination against COVID-19.
Salinas recalled that in April the Government decreed the end of the health emergency, but that does not imply that the pandemic has ended. He emphasized the increase in cases in the world and, in particular, in the Americas, in recent weeks.
According to official figures, between Monday and Thursday of last week, Uruguay registered an increase of 1,172 cases, and, from Monday to Thursday of this week, of 2,616. Most of them were in people between 18 and 49 years old, in general, in occupational outbreaks that became intra-family and, in many cases, they reached the educational field and nursing homes. The increase is due to a greater circulation of the BA2 variant, which reaches 35% of cases and carries a greater contagion power, Salinas said.
In addition, he mentioned the importance of maintaining non-pharmacological measures, ventilated spaces, the use of a face mask if one remains in a place without ventilation for more than 15 minutes, and a distance of at least two meters from other people, particularly when there are large number of individuals.
Regarding the doses, he affirmed that the fourth is available for those over 50 years of age and urged those who did not receive the reinforcement of the third with Pfizer to get immunized, since only 83% have it.
Likewise, it announced that a fourth dose will be available for the age group between 18 and 49 years, aimed, in particular, at patients with comorbidities and who have received two doses of Sinovac and one of Pfizer. It is about 809,000 people, although not all suffer from other diseases.
Salinas recalled that from the MSP there is no access to medical records and it is not possible to establish an opening due to pathology, for which he appealed to the responsibility of the population to determine if it is appropriate to be inoculated.
Satdjian, meanwhile, reported that the fourth dose will be enabled between Tuesday, May 17 and Wednesday, May 18. People will be able to schedule themselves through the Coronavirus application, from the web, or through the toll-free telephone line 0800 1919. To do so, 120 days must have elapsed since the application of the third dose or from the course of the disease. He added that it is possible to receive the flu vaccine simultaneously.
He also said that the scheme with Pfizer will be completed for those citizens who travel to countries that require it complete with that vaccine or an inoculation for no more than six months.
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