The Government of Buenos Aires announced the application of a fourth dose of the vaccine against COVID-19

The Minister of Health of the province of Buenos Aires, Nicolás Kreplak, announced the application of a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In principle, the measure is intended for “all people whose primary schedule is three doses because they are immunocompromised or over 50 years of age vaccinated with Sinopharm,” said Axel Kicillof's government official.

The Buenos Aires health portfolio specified this Wednesday that people will be able to apply the fourth booster dose once they have reached the age of four months since the last application. Regardless of their place of residence, people will be able to apply the inoculant against the coronavirus in any vaccination in the province of Buenos Aires: “The vaccine is free and federal,” said the Ministry of Health.

In the City of Buenos Aires, since the beginning of March, the fourth dose has been applied to people who are immunocompromised or over 50 years of age who received Sinopharm alone. “Vaccination against COVID-19 has a primary scheme, the first and second doses, which are necessary to activate the immune system and protect against the disease, this is true for the vast majority of citizens. On the other hand, there are certain specific groups that “have a lower immune response, either because they are receiving chemotherapy, or because they are receiving immunosuppressants because they are transplanted, or because they are receiving corticosteroids, or are undergoing haemotherapy, or they suffer from a disease that has damaged their immunity, or because they are a congenital or acquired disease such as HIV,” said the Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Fernán Quirós.

And he added: “In those cases where the immune system does not respond well, the primary scheme with two doses is not enough. Therefore, there are primary two-dose schemes for the vast majority of citizens and primary three-dose schemes.” Now they also receive a fourth dose.

With regard to the possibility of the general population receiving a fourth vaccine, Quirós had stated that it was still an issue under evaluation.

According to official data from the Public Vaccination Monitor, 95,310,114 million vaccines were applied in the country. Of that universe, 40,526,118 correspond to first doses, 40,526,118 to second doses, and 18,054,841 people have already received their additional or booster doses.

In percentages, according to the Infobae Data Unit, 88% of the Argentine population applied the first dose of one of the authorized emergency formulations available in the country, 80% two, and 39% three.

From the available information, it appears that 18,374,773 people are awaiting their third dose. And although many of them have not yet received it because it has not been four months since the second, 6,500,000 have been more than five months since they completed their initial schedule, and according to all medical forecasts, they would be more unprotected against possible infection.

In addition, there are 5,282,629 people who did not receive any doses of the available vaccines, and 4,096,504 who started their regimen with one dose, and did not reapply the second dose. There are almost 10 million other people without protection against SARS-CoV-2.

Despite the fact that there is a stock of 7,565,976 vaccines distributed in the different provinces without applying, health authorities are concerned that the rate of vaccination slowed down in the country, just ahead of the winter season and while the Ómicron BA.2 subvariant generates new outbreaks of the disease in different parts of the world.

In this context, the Ministry of Health of the Nation reported this Wednesday that, in the last 24 hours, 39 deaths from coronavirus and 4,681 new infections were recorded. With these data, the cumulative total number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic is 8,985,836, while deaths total 127,334.

On this last day, 47,676 tests were carried out, so the recorded positivity rate is 9.81%. This percentage is encouraging, since it is below 10% recommended by WHO to consider the pandemic to be controlled.

There are currently 67,243 active cases in the country. These are people who were diagnosed with the disease and have not yet been discharged into the national system. Meanwhile, the total number of recovered amounts to 8,791.29. On the other hand, of the total number of deaths reported today, 17 are men and 22 are women.

According to the epidemiological part, at the moment, in Argentina there are 741 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in intensive care. The percentage of bed occupancy at the national level is 39.3% and in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) it is 40.1%.

Of the 4,681 infections reported this afternoon, 2,239 (47.83%) are from the province of Buenos Aires; 579 from CABA; 23 from Catamarca; 36 from Chaco; 86 from Chubut; 31 from Corrientes; 393 from Córdoba; 53 from Entre Ríos; 71 from Formosa; 6 from Jujuy; 98 from La Pampa; 4 from La Rioja; 55 from Mendoza; 232 from Mendoza Misiones; 99 from Neuquén; 58 from Rio Negro; 34 from Salta; 58 from San Juan; 16 from San Luis; 20 from Santa Cruz; 163 from Santa Fe; 3 from Santiago del Estero; 10 from Tierra del Fuego and 314 from Tucumán.

KEEP READING: