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If you are 65 or older and do not live in a municipal area, such as a nursing home or senior center, you will be part of the next round of vaccination against him COVID-19 (phase 1-B), that the Health Department Estimates can start in about four to six weeks.
Phase 1, 1-A, will continue to include health workers, as well as workers and residents of long-term care centers, as before.
However, this highest priority group will also be joined by workers and participants from community centers and intellectual disability homes, recognized by court order, after the government has accepted some of the changes proposed by a panel of experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“They are recommendations from the CDC, and we are more or less adopting them,” the Undersecretary for Health said yesterday. Iris Cardona, in a press conference, in which the Minister of Health took part, Lorenzo González Feliciano, along with other agency officials and employees in this process.
Nine days after immunization against COVID-19 began in Puerto Rico, Salud announced these and other changes. Last Sunday, a CDC panel of experts recommended several changes to the schedule for this vaccination.
With a vote of 13 to 1, the group was in favor of the fact that those queuing to be vaccinated should be people aged 75 and over, as well as front-line workers. Experts also advised that this first phase also includes people aged 65 to 74, as well as 16 to 64 years of age with high-risk conditions and essential workers, but the island’s government did not accept this proposal.
The major change to Puerto Rico’s schedule is that certain key workers moved from Stage 1-B to Stage 1-C, including government and municipal workers, workers from the Water and sewage authority (AAA) and the Authority for electricity (AEE), as well as communication and solid waste workers, among others.
Adults over 65 years of age or older who do not live in a compound environment are in phase 1-B, within what is expected to be “an orderly process” so that this population of approximately 400,000 people can be vaccinated in approximately 150 community pharmacies with which agreements have been signed, as well as in other health settings such as diagnosis and treatment centers, primary medical groups and primary health centers or 330 centers. Meanwhile, people with chronic illnesses ages 16 and older can be vaccinated in the 1-C.
Cardona said the first stage (1-A) could last four to six weeks, and estimated that the three initial stages (1-A, 1-B, and 1-C) together could last about 20 weeks.
Phase 1-C, meanwhile, also includes people in prison, with disabilities, in shelters, spiritual assistance personnel, university students, and restaurant workers.
The vaccination program committed to Puerto Rico is proceeding as planned, it will be in May, when Phase 2 of the vaccination opens. This includes people 16 years of age or older with no history of chronic illness. Salud’s expectation is that there will be several vaccination centers on the island by that date.
Vaccine availability
The health minister expects at least five COVID-19 vaccines to be available on the island by February., including two others that are expected to soon be able to receive emergency use approval from the federal government, that of Johnson & Johnson and from AstraZeneca.
“The limiting factor is the distribution of the vaccine by the company that manufactures it,” said Cardona.
Although he reiterated that they received information last week about an adjustment in the number of vaccines provided, with a lower number than expected, he noted that the vaccine is not ready yet. He expected weekly shipments of both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to continue to arrive in Puerto Rico.
96% of 30,225 COVID-19 vaccines received from the company were reported to have been administered last week Pfizer. These were distributed in 117 health facilities, including 64 hospitals. Meanwhile, the expected 47,500 Moderna vaccines arrived last Monday.
González Feliciano pointed out that they expected to receive 27,300 vaccines from Pfizer and a further 20,900 from Moderna this week. Cardona warned that some vaccines won’t be distributed until next Monday because of the Christmas holidays.
“This is going to take us a few months, but there will be vaccines for all Puerto Ricans,” Cardona repeated.
Regarding the adverse effects of the vaccine, Cardona noted that eight people have been registered with minor effectsincluding fever, muscle pain, itchy body, dizziness, nausea, numbness in any part of the mouth, edema or swelling on one side of the face, rash and lip swelling.
On the other hand, the doctor yesterday Jose Rodriguez Orengo, director of the Public Health Trust, noted A seroprevalence study conducted in various parts of the country in late November found that out of 1175 studies conducted, a 2.8% prevalence of COVID-19 was detected. Meanwhile, 55% said they were willing to get vaccinated, and 27% said they didn’t know whether or not they wanted to get vaccinated.
However, González Feliciano clarified that the virus positivity rate is currently 8%.
Meanwhile, the epidemiologist Fabiola Cruz, chief of the municipal case study and contact tracking system, noted that 1,800 doses of the monoclonal treatment have already arrived in Puerto Rico. This, he explained, is available to people infected with the virus who do not have severe symptoms or have no criteria for hospitalization.
“(This treatment) has not been used to the rate we would like,” he indicated, noting that only about 40 infusions of this drug have been administered, administered as a serum on an outpatient basis for one hour and then observing the patient for two hours in case of an adverse effect.
Cruz urged physicians interested in more information and request this treatment for a patient who meets the characteristics to benefit from writing to tratamiento.covidpr.info.
Meanwhile the doctor Idania Rodriguez, who is in charge of preventing and controlling the virus in older adults, reported that there remain 44 active outbreaks of COVID-19 during the month of December, at a rate of 14 to 15 weekly outbreaks in long-term care centers. On Sunday, he said, 140 deaths had been reported among residents of these facilities, for which Rodríguez urged the workers of these places to fend for themselves to avoid contamination and exposure of the residents of these places.
Regarding deaths from COVID-19, Wanda Llovet, director of the Demographic Registry, reported that 59% were female, 88% people aged 55 or older, and 88% hospitalized. The number of fatalities from the virus remained an average of 10 per day in both November and December, the health minister warned, who stressed the situation is worrying and expects the year to end with more than 1,500 deaths from COVID. 19. As of yesterday, there was a report of 1,408 deaths from COVID-19 on the island.