Chile announced, this Thursday (6), that it will start the application of the fourth dose of the vaccine against Covid-19, in the next few days. The immunizers will be available for immunocompromised people from the 10th and for those over 55 on February 7th.
AT leaf In November, the undersecretary responsible for the purchase of vaccines in the Chilean government, Rodrigo Yáñez, had already advanced his intention to make the fourth dose available in the first half of 2022.
The officialization was announced by President Sebastián Piñera, who leaves his post in March. “A person without complete protection is six times more likely to be infected and 20 times more likely to be admitted to the ICU than a person with a booster dose,” he said, adding that experience shows that the effectiveness of vaccines and doses of reinforcement decreases with time.
Initially, the application next Monday, as explained by the government, will be for immunocompromised people aged 12 and over. Afterwards, the booster will be extended to those over 55 who have completed six months since the last application.
Currently, according to the Our World in Data platform, linked to the University of Oxford, Chile has 86% of the population with the first complete vaccination cycle, and 57% have already received a booster dose.
The country has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world — in Brazil, the same rates are, respectively, 67% and 13%.
“With the fourth dose, we seek to maintain that leadership position and protect the health and lives of our countrymen,” said Piñera.
According to the country’s Health Minister, Enrique Paris, the new booster will be given through a combination system between Pfizer, Sinovac (in Brazil, Coronavac) and AstraZeneca, already applied in the country. “The use of different vaccines between the first and fourth dose should allow an improvement in the immune response [das pessoas]” he explained.
Chile had, in recent months, seen the contagion situation stabilize, but the emergence of the ômicron variant made the number of cases skyrocket – as has been happening in Europe, the USA and other Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Peru and Brazil.
The announcement of the fourth dose comes amid record infections over the past six months. From Wednesday to Thursday, the country recorded 3,134 new infections and 30 deaths from Covid.
In his announcement, however, Piñera made a point of highlighting the downward trend in the number of deaths. The Chilean president compared the current rates with those of July 8, when a daily number of infections similar to today’s was recorded, around 3,000 positive cases.
At the time, 2,167 people needed mechanical ventilation, compared to 404 today. The death toll was 186, more than six times the current figure.
According to the Reuters news agency, Chile is the first country in Latin America to make official the fourth dose of the vaccine for people without comorbidities. In Brazil, the Ministry of Health authorized, in December, the second booster dose for immunosuppressed patients.
Israel also approved, at the end of last year, the fourth dose for immunosuppressed people, people over 60 years old or health professionals; the application for more groups depends on the approval of the Ministry of Health. In the country, the orientation is for those eligible to receive the fourth injection at least four months after the third.
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