Health ensures that 73 healthcare providers have already started vaccinating adults over the age of 65 or older

About 73 health care providers on the island have already received doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and have begun to vaccinate adults over the age of 65 or older as part of the initiation of phase 1 b vaccination, the Dr. Iris Cardona, director of the Department of Health’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

“The list (with providers) is being refined. The health care providers registered are approximately 300 and include a range of different health facilities. We’ve refined a list of those who got vaccines this week ”, Cardona indicated. “The list we want to publish is so that citizens can get a turn or make an appointment to get vaccinated in an effective way”, stressed out.

The purge of that list has been underway since Monday, then late Sunday Salud published a list of 56 providers with their phone numbers and emails, so that they would start receiving calls from older adults for orientation and vaccination appointments. in the respective locations.

But overall, the public felt that the providers on the list were unwilling to answer questions such as the start date of vaccination at their centers, being lucky to get a response in the call or email.

Some providers assured this medium that they were receiving an extraordinarily high number of calls and requests, causing the lines to collapse and delaying responses, although both the appointment allocation and the vaccination process have already begun.

“We are doing the exercise to confirm the phone number and that they can serve the public”, Cardona said. “Many of these suppliers have a great desire to help and have moved to improve processes”, assured the doctor.

Salud, for his part, continues to work on a unified appointment system that includes all the facilities that will administer the vaccine, although there is no date for the launch of that electronic platform.

“Most hospitals in Puerto Rico work together, the same way the medical groups, CDT, Centers 330, mayors, all want to work together. The biggest limitation is the number of vaccines coming in every week “, Held.

Of the total of 42,450, about 11,000 go directly to the vaccination of older adults who reside in long-term care centers operated primarily by the Walgreens pharmacies and the CVS chain. The National Guard is stockpiling an additional 10,000 administered at its regional vaccination centers and other initiatives, while the remaining 20,000 are roughly distributed among healthcare providers authorized to administer the vaccine.

As for the elderly in long-term care centers, about 4,000 people had been vaccinated as of Tuesday, including residents and staff in 126 institutions, Cardona reported.