RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro started this Sunday the mass vaccination against covid-19 of the entire adult population of the island of Paquetá, as part of research coordinated by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), linked to the Ministry of Health.
In the next few days, the authorities intend to vaccinate the entire population over 18 years of age that has not yet received any of the doses of the immunizer on this island located in the Guanabara Bay and one hour by boat from the city.
The first dose of the mass vaccination program was administered to a woman by the Minister of Health himself, physician Marcelo Queiroga, who stressed that immunization is the “hope” to defeat the “enemy, the virus” in Brazil, one of the countries in the world most affected by the pandemic.
The country surpassed 500,000 deaths due to covid-19 the day before and already has 17.8 million cases since the beginning of the health crisis.
The president of Fiocruz, Nísia Trindade Lima, emphasized that the objective of the study, baptized “Paquetá vaccinated”, is “to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of vaccination”, as has already been carried out in other cities in the country on an experimental basis.
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The Mayor’s Office of Rio de Janeiro is confident in the program’s success to be able to hold an early mini-carnival on this island next September, as recently announced by Mayor Eduardo Paes.
It will be the first massive event in the state of Rio de Janeiro since the beginning of the pandemic since the carnival was suspended this year throughout the country due to the strong advance of the virus and despite the beginning of vaccination.
Only 11% of the population has been immunized with the two doses of the drug in Brazil, although the percentage rises to 28% if people who have only received one dose are considered.
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Governors of several states, including Rio, are confident that they will vaccinate the entire population with at least one dose by the end of October. However, uncertainty about the delivery of vaccines still keeps the control of the pandemic in the country up in the air.