APRIL 18, 2021

500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine arrive to Chile to continue with the COVID-19 vaccination campaign

Authorities from the Science, Foreign Affairs and Health Ministries highlighted that Chile has received a total of 15.5 million vaccines and urged those who are eligible and have not yet been vaccinated to go and do it.

Science Minister Andrés Couve, together with International Economic Relations Undersecretary (SUBREI) Rodrigo Yañez and the Metropolitan Regional Secretary of the Health Ministry (Seremi), Paula Labra, received the 8th shipment of CoronaVac vaccines from the Sinovac laboratory at the Perilogistics distribution center in Santiago.

“Today we received an additional 500,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine. Considering this shipment, we have received a total of approximately 15.5 million vaccines, of which 13.4 million correspond to the vaccine from the Sinovac laboratory. This has enabled us to have very positive results with the campaign in which the Sinovac vaccine has proven to be very effective in preventing infections, hospitalizations, avoiding ICU care and above all, preventing the loss of lives,” said Minister Couve.

Regarding the progress of the vaccination campaign, the Science Minister highlighted that “in Chile we have vaccinated more than 5 million people with both doses, but we have to reach 15 million people. This means that we are headed in the right direction but we still have a way to go. In this sense, we call on those people who have not been vaccinated to go do it,” he said.

“This week the calendar is prioritizing second doses and all eligible people 48 years of age and older who have not yet been vaccinated, and starting Thursday, healthy people aged 47 are eligible. We are at a very demanding moment in the pandemic, and in addition to the vaccine, we must continue with social distancing, hygiene and mask use measures, which are the tools that we have today to fight this pandemic,” added the Science Minister.

Undersecretary Yañez highlighted our country’s trade negotiations for the continuation of the vaccination process: “In the name of the International Economic Relations Undersecretary’s office, we are very committed to further diversifying our vaccine portfolio. We are in conversations to extend contracts with Sinovac and Pfizer-BioNTech and we are also negotiating with other vaccine providers such as Gamaleya laboratory with the Sputnik vaccine, Bharat Biotech from India with its Covaxin vaccine as well as with the Covax vaccines: AstraZeneca, Johnson&Johnson and Sinopharm from China,” he said.

Seremi Paula Labra pointed out that as a country we have enough doses to continue with the vaccination campaign and made a call for people to keep up with preventive measures while the vaccination process advances: “It is very important that we continue to get vaccinated. For this process to be successful we need to expand coverage to as many people as possible, which is why we want to call on everyone to get vaccinated according to our schedule (…) We have enough vaccines for everyone who needs them. Be that as it may, even if we have received both doses of the vaccine, we must remember that we need to continue taking care of ourselves with self-care measures, hand washing and physical distancing.”

Next vaccine shipments

In regard to new vaccine shipments, Undersecretary Rodrigo Yañez indicated that “next week we will most likely receive the first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine, with close to 160,000 doses, as well as 285,000 doses from the Pfizer/BioNTech lab. Therefore, a little over 400,000 doses will be added to the 700,000 doses that we are already expecting from Sinovac to close out the 14.2 million contracted doses as we continue to negotiate a contract extension. We expect to keep moving ahead at this pace over the next few months and finish vaccinating the bulk of the population by the end of the first semester,” he said.

When asked about the evaluation of the AstraZeneca vaccine by regulatory agencies in regard to the unusual cases of blood clots, Minister Couve pointed out: “This week, on April 7, we received news on the resolution by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which indicated that the AstraZeneca vaccination program should continue. In Chile, we have an autonomous level IV regulatory agency. Our agency, the Public Health Institute (ISP) will make a statement tomorrow in regard to the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

Genomic surveillance

Regarding the circulation of variants of Sars-Cov-2 in Chile, the Science Minister commented on genomic surveillance efforts. “This virus, like any other, mutates, changing over time and changing its genome. The ISP and the Health Ministry lead a genomic surveillance program that systematically monitors those variants that appear in our country, whether they enter the country through the airport, circulation of variants or in people who have been hospitalized for long periods of time.”

“Yesterday we learned about a new report by the Epidemiology Department in regards to the variants, and we know that in Chile we have the British variant and the Brazilian variant. Although the numbers aren’t yet high enough among the population to make precise calculations, we also know that both the British and Brazilian variants have been increasing. This has also been confirmed in a study by the Universidad Católica. Now we have included a group of universities to help achieve greater precision by complementing the sequencing work carried out by the ISP, and it is making good progress,” said Minister Couve.