Vaccination of children from six months to under 3 years of age with comorbidities or indigenous people against Covid-19 began with low demand in UBSs (Basic Health Units) in the capital of São Paulo this Thursday (17).
The Municipal Health Department reported that it is too early to talk about low adherence and should release a balance sheet at the end of the day.
The immunizer approved for this public is Pfizer Baby, which can be applied concomitantly with the other vaccines on the national calendar. Its vaccination schedule is three doses.
The start of vaccination for children with comorbidities —which include immunosuppressed and those with permanent disabilities—happens amid an increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations for the disease in Brazil. The UBSs had a high demand for people who had their booster doses overdue, in early November.
Children with severe primary immunodeficiency, undergoing chemotherapy and transplanted, for example, are considered immunosuppressed.
THE Sheet he was in three health units in the morning and early afternoon, and the scenario was the same: there were no parents or guardians with children from this group in search of immunization against Covid-19.
At UBS Cambuci, in the central region, until around 11 am, none of the target audience’s children had been immunized.
On the other hand, the xepa queue, a way to take advantage of immunization bottles that until the end of the day are not fully used in the UBSs, releasing the application in children without comorbidities, already had 16 entries.
The unit is quite busy, say the employees, so the low initial demand was strange.
At UBS Mooca, in the east zone, the situation was the same. There were no children with comorbidities, accompanied by those responsible, in search of immunization.
Anonymous, a server told the Sheet that the low demand was already expected and occurs in the beginning whenever they release vaccines only for people with comorbidities. The same argument was used by an employee of the UBS Humaitá, in Bela Vista (downtown), who registered “very low demand”, according to the employee, until the beginning of the afternoon.
According to information from a group in the vaccine sector, in a messaging application that brings together the nine UBSs in the central region, demand for the immunizer was very low until the beginning of the afternoon of this Thursday. However, they did not reveal how many children were vaccinated.
The Municipal Health Secretariat, in turn, stated that it is not possible to assess the level of demand for the immunizer based on these units visited, since the São Paulo capital has 470 units.
Only at the end of the day will an assessment of the first day of vaccination for this specific public be released.
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