Sebastián Piñera extends state of catastrophe 1:43
(CNN Spanish) ––
The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, announced this Wednesday the beginning of the "National Vaccination Plan" against covid-19 for December.
This, in at least four regions of the country.
«Today we have received confirmation from the Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories that during this month of December the plane with the first 20,000 doses of vaccines will land in Chile, out of a total of 10 million.
This will allow us to immediately start vaccinating all the people who work in the intensive care units of our health system, in the regions with the highest incidence of coronavirus.
Like the Bío Bío region, Araucanía and Magallanes, apart from the personnel of the Metropolitan Region, ”said the president through a national chain.
LEE: Chile approves emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against covid-19
Piñera indicated that the vaccine will be voluntary and free for all, but that there will be an order of priority.
In the first instance, it will begin with the health personnel.
Then they will follow older adults, chronically ill.
And, finally, the other groups of the target population "according to their degree of risk," explained Piñera.
In total, they number about 15 million people.
«Our vaccination plan depends on the approvals of the international health authorities and of our country.
And its availability will gradually grow according to the delivery capacity of the laboratories, "said Piñera.
The president did not specify when the next shipments of Pfizer vaccines will arrive in Chile.
Chilean Public Health Institute approved vaccine
The Institute of Public Health of Chile announced this Wednesday the unanimous approval by its panel of experts for the emergency use of this vaccine in the population over 16 years of age.
And he stated that two doses per person are needed with a difference of at least 20 days between each application.
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In addition to Pfizer, Piñera assured that Chile already has agreements and contracts signed with other laboratories such as Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Jensen, Johnson & Johnson and the Covax Alliance of the World Health Organization.
covid-19 pandemic