| Photo: EFE
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Amid an increase in complaints of compliance with the schedule stipulated by the government itself and due to the lack of transparency in the immunization numbers, Venezuela is advancing in the process of applying the third dose of the vaccine against Covid-01.
On the last day 23 in December, when the first cases of the omicron variant were confirmed in the country, dictator Nicolás Maduro announced the booster vaccination plan. The application of booster doses would officially start on January 3 and, according to the Minister of Health, Carlos Alvarado, the first to be immunized should be professionals who have direct contact with infected patients and, then, the other employees of the health area. Then would come the older ones of 50 years, followed by people under 50 years with comorbidities and by workers who are in contact with the public.
It happens that, despite the information given by the minister Alvarado and insisting that Venezuela has all the necessary doses, the Monitor Salud union is demanding that vaccines reach all hospitals in the country because, according to their data, only 60% of health centers received the third dose to immunize their employees. The union indicated that, according to a survey carried out in 63 health centers in 01 states from Venezuela and Caracas, only 23 hospitals said having received booster doses and in 26 % of these not only health professionals were being vaccinated, but also the general population.
According to the EFE agency, the confusion arose because, from the first day of this new stage of the immunization process, citizens, without discriminating whether they were health workers or older than 60 years, they went to the Alba Caracas hotel to receive the third dose, despite the fact that the place is not a medical center . Therefore, the union reinforced the need to protect and prioritize health professionals, “because they are the ones exposed daily” to Covid-. He also highlighted that only 63 % of health establishments that received booster doses in the week of January 3rd to 9th, they started the application process, since the 01% remaining “have different timelines than what has followed so far”.Although Maduro assures that the country is “on track to have 100% of citizens vaccinated and already have 95% of immunized adults”, vaccination figures in Venezuela are not published regularly. As is customary in his speeches, the dictator never specifies whether this percentage corresponds to people who received only one dose of the vaccine or the two necessary to be fully immunized.
8013974656001″In the year of 2021, with much effort and despite the difficulties, we acquired the vaccines and reached 95% of immunized adults. In addition, we are immunizing boys and girls and moving towards 100%”, said the Venezuelan president on his Twitter account. However, on the last day in October, the Deputy Minister of Health, Marisela Bermúdez, confirmed that 50% of the population had, at that time, only one dose of the two needed to achieve immunization. Later on 01 in December, the Deputy Minister of Health, Gerardo Briceño, assured that 55% of the Venezuelan population had a complete vaccination schedule against Covid-14.