RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) on Friday, June 18, announced the advances in the city’s vaccination schedule and said that all adults over 18 years of age will be immunized by the end of August.
The latest forecast was for this group to be vaccinated by October. The Mayor also addressed the possibility of holding Carnval in 2022.
According to Paes, the Ministry of Health’s vaccine delivery rate has been faster than expected. He thanked the head of the portfolio, Marcelo Queiroga, who took part in the press conference alongside the Mayor. Paes further said that the Ministry is delivering vaccines in a balanced way all across the country, with no political bias.
Paes said that the race for vaccines among governors is healthy, but that the advances in the rate of vaccination depend on the Ministry.
In recent days, Paes, Governors João Doria (PSDB) of São Paulo, Eduardo Leite (PSDB) of Rio Grande do Sul, and Flávio Dino (from PCdoB to PSB) of Maranhão exchanged Twitter posts on the subject.
In Rio, all pregnant and postpartum women will be vaccinated next week, according to the Mayor. Under the new calendar, as of August 2, women aged 37 will begin to be vaccinated. The Mayor also said he wants Rio to be the first city to announce the vaccination of adolescents, aged 12 to 17, in September. “With this immunization coming, we will have Carnaval in 2022,” he said.
The city’s Health Secretary Daniel Soranz commented on the test to be conducted in the small island of Paquetá, with mass vaccination of the island’s inhabitants. “We will monitor 3,000 residents in Paquetá, 1,600 will be vaccinated on June 20,” said the secretary. The study’s completion and the release of results will occur on June 20, 2022.
According to Paes, half of Rio residents over 18 have now been vaccinated with the first dose against Covid-19. The regularization of the vaccine flow delivered by the Ministry allows advancing the immunization schedule in the city, the Mayor said.
According to Rio’s Superintendent of Health Surveillance Márcio Garcia, all age groups vaccinated first are registering a reduction in cases and deaths in the city. “However, the city of Rio is still registering a high risk of contamination by Covid-19,” Garcia said.
So far, new cases of Covid-19 with 15 variants were registered over the past week, bringing the total to 619 in the city. Consequently, restrictive measures in Rio have been maintained. Nevertheless, a reduction in emergency care over the past week, as well as in the number of cases and deaths has been noted.