The Secretary of the Department of Health (DS), Carlos Mellado López, today signed the administrative order 2021-493 in which the food industry, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment, public transport sector, air transport and maritime goods. This sector will be assisted in an orderly and coordinated manner by the Vaccination Program and will not be assisted in the vaccination centers.
Specifically, it will start with those who work in production, distribution and, exclusively, employees in the sales chain of supermarkets. Within the food industry, this includes; farmers, poultry farmers, beekeepers, supermarkets and food distributors.
“We continue to make rapid progress in the inoculation process, with the arrival of 100,000 vaccines a week, we are expanding the sectors in phase 1B we are in. These new groups will be specifically coordinated by the DS Vaccination Program, while we continue to serve the priority population, which are those over 50 with chronic conditions and older adults over 60, they need to be cared for. continuation of vaccination events. they receive in the municipalities and in the vaccination centers of our suppliers “, the secretary expressed.
Mellado López stated that, “since February 2, we have integrated phase 1B, giving priority to the elderly, however, there are many groups in this phase that we have to participate in and we will do it little by little. Therefore, today we give way to the next priority group following the guidelines set by the CDC. It is estimated that this group in the food and medical equipment industry will reach 70,000 people.
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DS has started talks with the Chamber of Marketing, Industry and Food Distribution (MIDA) to join forces and be part of their inoculation in their population group.
On the other hand, the faculty of the universities belonging to the educational sector, which started in February, will also be integrated. This effort will be made following an agreement with the Central Caribbean University of Bayamón; School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, Mayagüez Campus and Medical Sciences Campus; San Juan Bautista School of Medicine; Ana G. Méndez, Gurabo; and the Inter-American University on its Barranquitas and Guayama campuses.
Vaccination of the public transport, air and sea transport sector, which also belongs to phase 1B, has also started in a coordinated and orderly manner. The first to be vaccinated in this group were the carriers of the “Call and Travel” program, within the Metropolitan Bus Authority (AMA).
The Secretary of Health reminded that “people over 50 years of age with chronic diseases and adults over 60 years of age can request their vaccination schedule through the portal www.protegetevacunate.com. The portal only requires a valid identification number and a year of birth. Once the system validates the information, it will give you the location of the different coordination centers to coordinate your scheduling. The person can select the center that suits him best.