COVID-19: Minsa shortens time for fourth dose in older people and asks to follow vaccination schedule

Director of Immunization Ministry of Health careMaria Elena Martinez, recalled the recent reduction to four months of the time required to receive the fourth dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 in Peru because the country is facing the fourth wave of this disease and the cases that reach hospitalization are precisely those of the elderly.

“We considered it appropriate, in addition to revising National Institutes of Health, Committee of Experts, because we had to care for and protect the elderly. It happened to older people that sometimes they forgot their second and third dose, and the period when they passed and became infected in this fourth wave was very long, ”he explained.

In an interview with RPP News, the nursing alumnus reported that since the implementation of this new measure to date – four days – almost 27 older people have already received their fourth dose across the country. He added that July 27 last year was the day of the largest influx of this population – more than 8,178 people.

Martinez noted that the vast majority of older people are vulnerable people because they have other diseases that can be aggravated in the event of a possible case. COVID-19. For this reason, he reiterated the importance of timely vaccination of this population and avoiding too long an interval between each of the doses.

“International studies have for quite a long time called for a vaccination period of 4 to 6 months (booster), but our country has decided on a third dose at five months; however, when faced with this fourth wave, we saw that the number of cases that occur are mostly elderly people,” he said.

Finally, the lawyer mentioned that possible reactions after the vaccine could be hand discomfort, possible fever, or general malaise. However, he stressed that of the 80 million doses of vaccines administered in total that were administered across the country, only mild reactions were reported in a “rather minority” of the group.

Booster doses against COVID-19

July 27 Ministry of Health care urged the elderly to complete the third dose and 4 months later to take the fourth dose, as this is the population with the highest mortality and the highest risk of developing severe cases of the disease. COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Minsa also allowed to use the third dose against COVID-19 for the age group consisting of children aged 5 to 11 years, since it has been shown that 3 doses are needed to protect against the micron variant of the coronavirus.

It should be remembered that the commitment of the Ministry of Health as of December of this year is to cover 80% of the population over 12 years of age with the third dose of vaccine against COVID-19 and 80% of children aged 5 to 11 years are vaccinated with the second dose.

To date, a total of 5,325,528 doses have been administered to this group of juveniles, achieving 70.4% vaccination coverage at the first dose with 2,959,410 vaccines administered, and 56.3% at the second dose with 2,366,118 vaccines administered.

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