Paraguay assures that there will be enough vaccines despite age reduction

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The director of the Expanded Program of Immunization (EPI) of Paraguay, Héctor Castro, assured this Monday that there would be enough vaccines and second applications guaranteed for the population, despite the planned start of the immunization of people between 20 and 34 years of age with 500,000 doses reserved to complete the scheme.

Castro recalled that 150,000 more doses of Moderna would arrive at the end of this month or early August, to which will be added the weekly supplies of the contract signed between Pfizer and the Government. This month, it is expected to reach 100,000 doses from that laboratory, with another 900,000 pending to establish a schedule. However, the Ministry of Health aspires to receive all of them in one shipment by August.

Read also: Check out our coverage on Paraguay

Castro said that the Ministry’s authorities received an e-mail from the multilateral mechanism Covax two weeks ago. Further meetings have been held with its representatives and the head of the health portfolio, Julio Borba.

“The rotating allocation is being planned to start in August; the platforms that can be allocated are being evaluated since we have the capacity to handle Pfizer,” Castro added.

Paraguay purchased some 4.3 million vaccines from AstraZeneca through Covax, of which it has only received 304,800 doses spread over three lots.

The Ministry of Health authorities has expressed their interest in changing the platform so that the next shipments received from Covax will be from other laboratories without refusing AstraZeneca’s vaccines.

In addition, Paraguay also purchased two million vaccines from India that it has not yet received.

“There is a firm commitment to receive them. I cannot anticipate confirmation of the date,” Castro said in this regard.

The EPI director guaranteed the application of the second doses “in the interval that corresponds” to administer and opened the door to the interchangeability of the vaccines.

“We are evaluating this situation of complementing if we do not have sufficient availability for second doses,” he commented.

If this were necessary, it would be done with Pfizer, which is “approved and with promising results”.

The objective of the government presided by Mario Abdo Benítez of the conservative Colorado Party is to vaccinate some 4.3 million people out of the little more than 7 million that make up its population.

This week the health portfolio will vaccinate the 20-34 age group and, in addition, will dedicate an exclusive day to immunize adolescents with underlying pathologies, Castro announced at the same press conference.

Figures from Our World in Data, updated on July 11, show that 9.65% of the Paraguayan population has received at least one dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus, while 1.94% has the complete regimen.

Paraguay had accumulated 444,992 infections and 14,288 deaths since March 2020, when the first case was detected in the country.