The Ministry of Health intends to start applying booster doses with the bivalent vaccine to immunize against covid-19 from the 27th of February. These vaccines increase immunity against the original strain virus as well as the Omicron variant. The announcement was made today (26) during the first ordinary meeting of the Tripartite Interagency Commission, at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). In the first phase, the campaign will focus on people aged over 70, immunocompromised people and residents of indigenous, riverside and quilombola communities. In the sequence (Phase 2, with date yet to be defined), the campaign will be aimed at people aged between 60 and 69 years. Pregnant women and postpartum women will be the focus of Phase 3; and health professionals will be the focus of the fourth phase of the campaign. First ordinary meeting of the Tripartite Interagency Commission, at PAHO headquarters – Julia Prado/ MS During the meeting with the members of the commission, the Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, said that the new management of the portfolio will adopt a policy of “care and collective construction ” and that, in this sense, dialogue between the Union, states and municipalities will be fundamental. “Today, we have some very specific challenges that represent the return of an agreement at a high level, as our relations should be”, she said. “I highlight among the initial measures, the National Immunization Policy, to be presented; a national plan to reduce queues in specialized care; the recovery of the Popular Pharmacy; valuing primary care; provision, qualification and professional training; and the resumption of the More Doctors Program on new bases”, said the minister. Stocks Addressing the state and municipal health secretaries present, the director of the Department of Immunization and Vaccine-preventable Diseases, Éder Gatti, described the situation of the ministry’s vaccine stocks, both for the treatment of covid-19 and other diseases. According to him, the situation left by the previous government represents a “real risk” of shortages of some immunizers. “Because they were expired, more than 370,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were incinerated last December. We found zero stock of pediatric Pfizer Baby and CoronaVac vaccines, which prevents our children from being vaccinated. And the stock of bivalent vaccines, to start the booster vaccine strategy, was very low, preventing articulation and structuring of a public policy for the vaccination of our population”, described the director. He added that there is “a real risk of running out of important vaccines on our schedule, because stocks are also low for BCG vaccines, hepatitis B, oral polio vaccine and triviral”. Low coverage According to Gatti, the current scenario of low vaccine coverage “is due to the denialist speeches made in the last four years by our authorities, which resulted in a drop in confidence in vaccines”. “We are at risk of polio and measles epidemics,” he added. Minister Nísia Trindade said, during one of the breaks in the meeting, that the portfolio’s “first measure” is to replenish stocks “so that we can plan actions”. She added that the childhood multivaccination schedule is being worked on and will soon be released. “We will carry out vaccination actions in schools, as one of the strategies, and we will combine multiple strategies so that we can provide this protection, as the low vaccination coverage of children does not only concern covid-19. Unfortunately, it is around 40%, for example, for measles and polio, one of the lowest rates in our history, since the beginning of the National Immunization Program”, she added. * Collaborated with Alex Rodrigues
Agência Brasil
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