Peru aims to have 40% of its population vaccinated with two doses by September

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Peru has set itself the ambitious goal of having 13.5 million people vaccinated with the full two-dose regimen by the end of September, in a race against the clock to accelerate the vaccination process before the third wave of the covid-19 pandemic begins.

This was announced this Thursday by the new Minister of Health, Hernando Cevallos, during the presentation of the fourth “vacunatón”, where the 22 vaccination centers in Lima, the country’s most populated city, which is home to a third of the national population, will be open uninterruptedly for 60 hours.

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There are currently 5.7 million people vaccinated with the full schedule, equivalent to 17% of Peru’s inhabitants. The goal is to end August with 8 million and September with 13.5 million, representing 40% of the population.

“We need to increase the percentage to be able to protect the people. (…) This is a race against time”, admitted Cevallos, concerned to prevent the “imminent” third wave from having similar effects to the first two, when the public health system was overwhelmed for long periods of five months in both cases.

“Still, the percentage of the vaccinated population is low,” added the minister, who took office this week without for the moment making any changes in the structure of the Ministry concerning his predecessor, Óscar Ugarte.

In this new “vacunatón”, which will be held from Friday to Sunday, the vaccination shift will be opened for the first time for people between 38 and 40 years of age, while the first dose will continue to be applied to adults between 40 and 44 years of age and the second dose for those over 45 years of age.

In this sense, the advisor and spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, Antonio Quispe, expressed his concern for the high percentage of older people who did not come to receive the second dose necessary to develop effective protection against the virus.

The spokesperson indicated that the delta variant of the coronavirus is already responsible for 20% of the cases of covid-19 in Brazil and 8% in Ecuador, while in Peru, it is above 7% “and rising”.

“There is going to be the third wave, and the Ministry of Health is making every effort to close the gap of the second dose,” Quispe assured.

In this sense, Minister Cevallos acknowledged that the Government needs to overcome “the resistance” created regarding the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine from the Sinopharm laboratory, which has been subject to unfounded criticism by the opposition for an alleged low efficacy.

“All vaccines are duly tested; they have been scientifically proven to have an efficacy above 90% to avoid death if any person catches the coronavirus”, remarked Cevallos.

Likewise, the minister recalled that the Sinopharm vaccine was initially administered to medical personnel and the Armed Forces, groups where mortality due to covid-19 “has fallen vertically” thanks to this vaccine.

Peru is one of the countries most affected globally by covid-19, having the highest mortality rate, with almost 600 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, resulting from the nearly 200,000 deaths accumulated by the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.