Vaccination in Rio secured until Tuesday; city maintains all 33 regions under high risk for Covid

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Friday, February 12th, mayor Eduardo Paes said that Rio has enough doses to immunize seniors against Covid-19 next Monday and Tuesday, February 15th and 16th – therefore, anyone aged 84 and 83 may attend a vaccination center.

“Monday and Tuesday are confirmed. (…) We hope to have good news by Sunday or Monday and keep moving forward.”

On Thursday, February 11th, the city hall announced that vaccination in the city of Rio de Janeiro was in danger of being interrupted because of a vaccine shortage. Up until then, stocks would only last until Saturday, February 13th, the day seniors aged 85 and older are scheduled to be immunized.

Municipal Health Secretary Daniel Soranz says the urgent need to vaccinate should be kept in mind. “Each day we waste or fail to vaccinate someone, we may be failing to save a life,” he said. Soranz said that the 50,000 CoronaVac doses delivered by the state this week will be used.

“This is indeed a cause for celebration. We can guarantee beds for those who need them, so that people won’t wait over 24 hours to be hospitalized. (…) But we will not ignore the fact that there might always be a rise in the number of cases,” he said.

The drop in demand at urgency and emergency primary care units for patients with flu syndrome is another important data, according to Soranz.

The announcement was made over the sixth epidemiological update for the city, which kept all 33 administrative regions in the city of Rio under high risk for Covid-19. It is the fourth straight week in this position.

The risk classification is based on the number of hospitalizations and deaths and is used to establish restrictive measures in the city. Since Paes’ administration was sworn in, when the city began to detail the Covid-19 situation by neighborhoods, no region has been classified as very high risk.

“Unfortunately, the time hasn’t yet come to relax things. There is only one purpose for canceling Carnaval, which is to preserve lives,” Paes said. “God willing, along with the extension of vaccination, we will be able to return to normal life, and have a Carnaval in 2022 that will makes up for the absence of Carnaval this year. Just like all Rio citizens who like Carnaval, I am very sad. It pains my heart not to be able to celebrate this event, but the cause is noble: preserving lives.” emphasized the mayor.

The balance allows to determine where the virus is most prevalent and in which areas people are becoming more sick. On Thursday, February 11th, Rio reached 17,888 deaths and 194,497 Covid cases.

Source: G1