Ecuador has declared mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 due to the increase in infections caused by the omicron variant, announced the Ministry of Health of the South American country.
“This decision was taken due to the current epidemiological state, that is, the increase in infections and the circulation of new worrying variants,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday (23).
The statute will begin “immediately,” government spokesman Rafael Castillo told BBC News Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish news service, adding that the order is aimed at anyone over the age of five, although there is one. “emphasis” on the population over 12 years old.
The ministry said it had the reserves necessary to immunize the entire population — and that the regulation was due to the fact that the new variant spreads more quickly than its predecessors.
As part of the directive, the government will require establishments that offer non-essential services to the population, such as restaurants, cinemas and supermarkets, to apply for a vaccination card.
The vaccination card will not be requested at health centers, schools and workplaces.
People who have any medical condition or contraindication will not need to be vaccinated.
Ministry officials told BBC News Mundo that supervision and sanctions for non-compliance with the order will fall to regional governments.
According to the ministry, the Organic Health Law allows vaccination to be declared as a requirement for “certain diseases, under the terms and conditions that the national and local epidemiological reality requires.”
“We rely on the laws to take these measures,” said Health Minister Ximena Garzon.
“It’s because we want to protect the health of all Ecuadorians.”
The minister also said that they are evaluating data on possible community contagion of the omicron variant in the country.
As of Tuesday (21), 12.4 million people had received full doses of the vaccine in Ecuador, representing 77.2% of its 16 million inhabitants. Ecuadorians have four vaccines available: Astrazeneca, Cansino, Pfizer and Sinovac.
An average of 510 cases a day were reported in Ecuador over the past seven days, according to the Reuters news agency. The number is 22% higher than the infections registered in May, the month with the highest average number of daily cases.
There was also an increase in the occupancy rate of beds in health centers. In Intensive Care Units (ICUs), the percentage varies between 24% and 77% of occupation, informed the ministry.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ecuador has registered 537,032 cases of Covid-19 and 33,597 deaths.
Before the vaccination, Ecuador faced one of the worst waves of Covid in Latin America.
In 2020, it was the second country with the highest number of deaths after Brazil, although its population is less than a tenth of Brazil’s.
On television, the world saw shocking images of people dead in the streets, faced with the saturation of funeral homes and hospitals.
There were also families who were misinformed about alleged dead relatives.
Vaccination, President Lasso’s priority
Analysis by MatÃas Zibell, contributor to BBC News Mundo in Ecuador
The vaccination campaign has been the main success of the government of President Guillermo Lasso, who took power on May 24, 2021 and reversed the insufficient supply of vaccines by the previous government in the first months of his term.
The president, in his six months in office, had to face a serious security crisis, prison riots with hundreds of deaths, social protests and a constant clash with the National Assembly, but few questioned the work carried out in the fight against Covid-19.
Even in the health area, there were complaints about the lack of medication for patients with chronic and serious illnesses, while the supply of doses to alleviate the pandemic did not stop.
Mandatory vaccination will be seen by some as part of the government’s good work, but the measure will not be without controversy in a country that closes the year with a rarefied social climate and a president who no longer has the popularity of the first few months.
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