RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More than 1,000 cities were left with no vaccines against Covid-19 this week. The information is included in a survey by the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM). The issue was reported by 1,002 municipalities, which represents 30.5% of the 3,287 municipalities consulted by the CNM.
Another 1,779, or 54.1%, did not report the failure to receive vaccines. Last week, 1,270 cities said they had run out of Covid-19 vaccines. Another 506 cities (15.4%) did not reply.
Also according to the survey, 795 cities said they had not received the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, or 79.3% of those that reported running out of immunizers. In the preceding week, 1,142 municipalities reported this same situation.
Of the total number of cities lacking the second dose, 767 ran out of CoronaVac and 100 ran out of the second dose of Oxford/AstraZeneca. Another 400 cities (39.9%) replied they had run out of the first dose to be administered to the population.
In this edition, the CNM included a new question about the availability of a cold chamber to store Pfizer immunizers. Among the municipal administrations consulted, 1,453 (44.2%) said they had this structure, while 1,303 (39.6%) lacked it. Of the surveyed city halls, 420 said they intended to acquire the equipment.
Supplies
The risk of running out of intubation kit medications was reported by 535 cities, equivalent to 16.3% of those surveyed. In the preceding survey, the rate stood at 18.3%. This issue was pointed out mainly in small and medium-sized cities. The kit consists of medicines used for ventilation support in Covid-19 patients, such as anesthetics and neuroblockers.
Restriction measures
Of all the cities surveyed, 2,026 (61.6%) reported having implemented some form of closure or restriction on the opening hours of non-essential activities. Another 751 (22.8%) said they had not resorted to this measure during the pandemic, and 510 (15.5%) did not answer. In the last edition, 67.2% of municipalities reported that they had implemented social distancing measures.
Source: Infomoney