Carlos Mellado admits that it will be difficult to vaccinate 70% of the population for the summer

Health Secretary Carlos Mellado acknowledged on Monday that it would be “mathematically difficult” to vaccinate COVID-19 in 70% of the population for the summer, a number recommended by scientists to achieve so-called herd immunity, and that the government has saw a possible coverage between July and August of this year.

“With 41,450 (dose) it is difficult to achieve this goal”, said the official referring to the number of first doses arriving weekly on the island. Of this total, to date, approximately 11,000 are received directly by the Walgreens pharmacy chain to inoculate employees and residents of 1,146 long-term care centers for the elderly who are part of Phase 1 vaccination.

“I would not dare venture once (designed for herd immunity) because we expect an increase in the number of vaccines arriving in Puerto Rico,” he said, leaving open the possibility of achieving the goal if it significantly increases the amount. of vaccine doses that Puerto Rico receives. “From 80,000 to 100,000 vaccinations a week would be a reasonable number to go on,” he estimated.

In December, Adjutant General al Puerto Rico National GuardGeneral José Juan Reyes estimated that 70% should be reached “sometime from July to August”.

With that in mind, Mellado said at a news conference that he hopes the federal government will increase the amount of vaccines states and territories receive. To date, the island has received 352,050 doses of vaccines, of which 321,965 have been distributed. At present, it was unclear how many of these correspond to secondary doses of both Pfizer vaccines and Moderna vaccines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 209,356 vaccines have been administered on the island, but Mellado said the suppliers have already administered more than 300,000 vaccines.