Vaccines from the Covax program to Venezuela, on the tightrope 3:59
(CNN Spanish) -
On December 24, on Christmas Eve, vaccination against covid-19 began in Latin America.
Two months later, what results were obtained?
We tell you about it here.
How many doses of the covid-19 vaccine were applied?
At least 13,388,703 doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered in the region, according to data available as of February 23 on
Our World in Data
, an Oxford University platform that tracks vaccination throughout the world.
The Latin American countries that administered the most doses are Brazil (7.3 million), Chile (3.09 million), Mexico (1.8 million) and Argentina (746,615).
Mexico and Chile are the ones that, along with Costa Rica, began vaccinating exactly two months ago.
Argentina did it days later, before the end of the year, and Brazil in January.
Chile, in the lead in vaccination against covid-19 2:28
This figure takes into account the inoculations in those countries plus those of Peru, Panama, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Ecuador.
The numbers for Venezuela and Paraguay, three other countries in the region that have already begun to administer the doses, are not available on the platform.
How many people are fully vaccinated?
The number of doses applied does not equal the number of people completely inoculated, since most of the approved covid-19 vaccines in the world require the application of two doses.
According to
Our World in Data
, there were at least 2,120,674 fully vaccinated people in the region as of February 23.
This figure takes into account data from Brazil (1.29 million fully vaccinated), Mexico (464,302), Argentina (264,926), Chile (55,463), Costa Rica (44,021) and Ecuador (1,962).
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In Latin America and the Caribbean live, according to data from the World Bank for 2019, about 646.4 million inhabitants.
If we take into account the number of fully vaccinated people and the population, at the moment 0.3% of the population would be fully inoculated.
However, not all countries have the most current figures available, so the percentage may vary.
Nurse Janete Da Silva Oliveira prepares a dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the Nossa Senhora Livramento community on the banks of the Rio Negro near Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil on February 9, 2021. (Photo by MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP via Getty Images)
What percentage was vaccinated in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Costa Rica?
It has been estimated that 75% of the population must receive the vaccine to achieve herd immunity, an immunity that the WHO warned will not be achieved globally in 2021.
Below we review how five Latin American countries rank with respect to two variables: the percentage of the population that received a dose and the percentage completely vaccinated.
The selected countries are the ones that top both lists, according to the information available in
Our World in Data
.
As of February 23, Chile - one of the world leaders in vaccination against covid-19 - topped the list for the region with 15.9% of the population that had received at least one dose.
It was followed by Brazil with 2.8%, Costa Rica and Argentina with 1.1% and Mexico with 1%.
The landscape changes when it comes to what percentage of the population is already fully vaccinated.
In this list the first place is Costa Rica, with 0.9%.
Argentina and Brazil follow with 0.6%, followed by Mexico with 0.4% and Chile with 0.3%.
5 countries have not started vaccinating yet
Vaccination began in most of the region, as we explain here.
However, there are 5 countries that as of February 23 had not started inoculation: Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uruguay.
Several of these countries have already announced vaccination plans, purchase agreements and also the number of doses they expect to receive through the Covax mechanism.
An exceptional situation is that of Cuba, which is developing four vaccines against covid-19 and expects to begin the inoculation process in April (within Latin America, another country that is conducting research to develop a vaccine is Mexico, but no reported progress in this regard. In fact, the portfolio of vaccines handled by the country so far includes Sinovac, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, CanSino and Sputnik V)
Guatemala and Uruguay, for their part, announced that this week they will receive their first doses.
How far are Latin American countries from the world leader?
Israel is the leader in vaccination against covid-19 if the doses applied per 100 inhabitants are taken into account, according to the information available in
Our World in Data
.
As of February 23, the country of about 9 million inhabitants had applied 7.68 million doses.
Brazil, the Latin American country that applied the most doses, administered 7.3 million doses on the same date with about 211 million inhabitants.
Positive vaccination results from Israel 1:40
To really compare what is the situation of the Latin American countries with respect to Israel, one can take into account the number of vaccines applied per 100 inhabitants.
Israel administered, as of February 23, 88.77 vaccines per 100 inhabitants.
In Latin America, the country that managed the most is Chile, with 16.18 per 100. It is followed by Brazil with 3.43, Costa Rica with 1.99, Argentina with 1.65 and Mexico with 1.4.
(The results from Israel are important for the region and for the world. A study conducted there, for example, has already shown that the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech would reduce symptomatic infections by more than 90%, allowing visualization of the efficacy of injection in the real world, beyond the figures that had been found in clinical trials prior to the application of the vaccine)
Covid-19 Pandemic Vaccine
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