São Paulo starts looking for homeless people who did not take a 2nd dose

Alexsandro Santos Gonçalves, 48, went to the Centro de Convivência Marinho Vila, in Mooca, east side of São Paulo, to take a shower this Wednesday morning (1st) and ended up receiving the second dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 , which was not in their plans.

Gonçalves is one of the homeless people in the capital that the Municipal Health Department began looking for this Wednesday in an active search for homeless people who have not yet taken the second dose of the immunizing agent.

“On the street, we are afraid of everything, including the virus,” he said, who said he had taken the first dose of the vaccine in August and did not know that the reception center would be a point of vaccination.

According to data from the Municipal Health Department, 43,600 vaccines were applied until the last Friday (26) to homeless residents, with 20,300 first doses, 15,700 second, 5,800 single doses and 660 additional.

According to the latest city hall census, from 2019, the city had around 24,000 people living on the city’s streets — the Ricardo Nunes (MDB) administration commissioned a new study. The State Movement of Homeless Residents estimates that the number is much higher, around 66,000 people.

Without giving a target of homeless people to be vaccinated, the municipal secretary of Health, Edson Aparecido, stated that the capital is managing to immunize this public.

“Many were vaccinated in other cities, as it is a floating population,” he said, who accompanied the first day of active search alongside Father Júlio Lancellotti, coordinator of the Pastoral do Povo de Rua in São Paulo.

Until 11:00 am this Wednesday, 80 people were immunized with Pfizer and Janssen vaccines in the coexistence center.

According to the secretary, the active search for vaccination of homeless people gains strength with the confirmation of three cases of the omicron variant, two of them in the capital and the third in Guarulhos, in Greater São Paulo.

The secretary also stated that about a million people did not show up to take the third dose of the vaccine in the capital.

“These are people who took the second dose more than five months ago and who shouldn’t know they can take the booster because it’s not written on the vaccination card,” he said. “It is very important that everyone is vaccinated right now because of a new strain that may start to circulate.”