The third shipment of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines, which contains 88,725 new doses, arrived in Chile this morning. It was received by Public Health Undersecretary Paula Daza, International Economic Relations Undersecretary Rodrigo Yáñez Benítez and Metropolitan Region Ministerial Health Secretary (Seremi) Paula Labra.
This is the largest shipment of vaccines to come into the country, and, together with the over 21,400 doses already received, it brings the total number of doses that have entered Chile to 110,175. Undersecretary Paula Daza explained that, “as of yesterday morning, we had vaccinated 10,699 healthcare workers. These new doses will allow us to continue to move forward with the inoculation process in seven regions of the country.”
She added, “the Arica and Parinacota, Antofagasta, Atacama, Coquimbo, O’Higgins, Ñuble and Aysén Regions will now receive the first doses for all of the healthcare workers who serve in public and private facilities, including primary care entities.”
In addition, some 4,800 doses will be distributed in the Metropolitan and Valparaíso Regions in order to complete the process of vaccinating Critical Patient Unit (Unidades de Paciente Crítico, UPC) staff.
Undersecretary Yáñez remarked, “at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, we are happy to be part of this joint effort. Thanks to this, we are already seeing the arrival of a large batch containing over 88,000 doses of vaccine, a figure that will continue to rise. By March over a million doses will have arrived.” He added that this comes in addition to “the portfolio of other vaccines that we are working with. We hope to have enough vaccine to be able to vaccinate the at-risk population during the first quarter.”
Meanwhile, distribution of the second dose of the vaccine to Critical Patient Unit workers who received their first vaccine between December 24 and 26 begins today in the Biobío, Araucanía, Magallanes and Metropolitan Regions.
“The over 88,000 new doses of COVID-19 vaccine that are arriving today give hope to healthcare workers, their families and the entire population. This is an injection of energy,” Undersecretary Daza said.
She also noted that while the vaccine will help greatly in combating the pandemic, it is not an immediate solution because a high percentage of people must be immunized first. “As such, we must continue to comply with all self-care measures and follow all of the restrictions imposed by the Health Authorities even more strictly because we are on the way to beating this disease, which has had such an impact on Chile and the world,” she concluded.