Chile’s world-leading vaccine deployment cannot stop the spread of Covid when the country is blocked

Lead the world in Chile Coronavirus As most of the country enters, vaccination deployments cannot stop the spread of Covid-19 Blockade,many people ChinaCoronaVac jab.

By Thursday, a small South American country surrounded by the Andes and the Pacific had given more than 6 million people (almost one-third of the population) single doses and 3.1 million doses (more than the 1970s). Including).

Yet that same day, the government blocked more than 80% of the country’s 19 million people.

Despite the promotion of vaccination, the number of cases in Chile is skyrocketing due to new viral variants that are more contagious and are thought to spread throughout the continent.

On Thursday, we passed 7,000 new cases in the last 24 hours. This is the second highest number recorded per day.

By comparison, in the UK, where the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine have been vaccinated to a similar proportion of the population so far, infection has dropped to a rate not seen since September. ..

Chile is using China’s CoronaVac vaccine and Pfizer / BioNTech, with 49.26 doses of vaccine per 100 people and the UK 47.62 doses of vaccine as of March 25.

However, as of March 26, in Chile, there was a 7-day moving average of 330.82 new coronavirus cases per million. In the UK, that percentage was only 84.08 per million.

“These are phenomena that go in completely different directions,” said Darwin Akna, chairman of the Chilean Intensive Care Unit, about the disruption between high vaccination and transmission rates in Chile.

President Sebastian Pinella has urged the country to make a “last effort,” and authorities hope that the promotion of vaccination will bear fruit next month.

Health Minister Enrique Paris said the blockade was “severe but necessary”, especially in Chile’s most populous metropolitan area of ​​Santiago.

The country recorded more than 950,000 infections and more than 22,500 deaths from Covid-19.

Chile began vaccination of health care workers on December 24th, and from February 3rd, vaccinations were initially given to the general population aged 90 and over.

This was after signing a contract to purchase 20 million Chinese CoronaVac vaccines approved for emergency use on January 20th.

So far, the majority of the doses administered are CoronaVac, which provides only 50% protection against Covid-19. That is, 50 out of every 100 people who have been vaccinated twice with CoronaVac are at risk of infection.

Vaccines reduce the severity of symptoms and thus significantly reduce the risk of hospitalization in most series of cases, but vaccinated individuals can still spread the virus.

The European Union and other countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States have not approved CoronaVac as it has not proven to be effective enough.

The use of CoronaVac, coupled with vaccination campaigns and the relaxation of the country’s general attitude during the summer vacation, and the arrival of new viral variants, has pushed up a new wave of infection.

“For the highest-risk people, the vaccine is only given a second dose, so the effectiveness of the vaccine is not yet known,” said Acuna.

He expects to see “a real impact on ICU bed requirements for the most at-risk people” in mid-April.

Medical officials say they have noticed differences in the identities of the people occupying the ICU bed since the first wave of the pandemic. The patient is young and ill.

“It seems more aggressive than last year. Hector Ugarte, the doctor in charge of the adult critical patient unit at the hospital in the coastal city of Coquimbo, told AFP.

The age of people in need of hospital treatment is “very young,” the Ministry of Health said. Because the young man “did not pay attention.”

On Thursday, officials said they had found 45 Brazilian variants of the new coronavirus, which had already detected a British variant in February.

ICU beds also operate at 95% occupancy in locations like Coquimbo, 460 km north of Santiago.

Prior to March 2020, there were eight ICU beds, but now there are 38 beds, and this week 46 people needed treatment at the Covid-19 hospital.

The government’s goal is to vaccinate 15 million people by June 30 to achieve the coveted “herd immunity” when a sufficient proportion of the population is resistant to pathogens and does not spread anywhere. Is to do.

By Thursday, authorities had given nearly 6.1 million people the first dose of either CoronaVac or Pfizer Shot in China.

Teachers, firefighters, chronic illnesses, journalists, public sector workers, pharmacy staff, and telecommunications employees have already received their first dose. Most healthcare professionals and two elderly people.

Despite the high infection rate, there are many optimistic views.

When residents and staff received their first vaccination in the first week of February at a retirement home in southern Chile, an outbreak of the coronavirus at the facility infected 70 people. The only death was an unvaccinated resident.

There is great hope in the hospital as well.

At the worst stage of last year’s pandemic, Coquimbo Hospital had 150 to 170 of its 1,700 strong workforce infected with Covid-19, Ugarte said.

“Currently, 80% of our staff have been fully vaccinated for several weeks, so there’s one!” He added, calling it the “first great demonstration” of the effects of the vaccine.