“In 2021, 100 million vaccines were applied in Colombia”: Ministry of Health

This Wednesday, March 23, the Ministry of Health of Colombia reported that during 2021 100 million vaccines were applied nationwide, a figure that was reached between the application of doses of the regular program and the National Vaccination Plan against covid-19.

This was confirmed by the head of the portfolio, Fernando Ruiz, during the first national meeting of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) and vaccination against covid-19, who highlighted that the achievements made in social and economic recovery have been made possible thanks to the teams that are part of this program.

“What has been done was satisfactory. The implementation of 100 million vaccinated in the past year is something that, in the history of public health in this country, the vaccination program, has not been seen. Perhaps because we had never had the urgency, but also because our regular program had always worked properly, and we were faced with a challenge of responding to the country,” said Minister Ruiz.

In this regard, he stressed that apart from the economic recovery in the country, it was possible to avoid a situation of lack of services as serious as that experienced in other nations, with citizens dying on the street and without access to the Intensive Care Units (ICU), however, during the second and third peaks of the pandemic, yes. there was a saturation of health services in much of the national territory.

He also stressed that vaccination “gives hope”, noting that the doses that have been applied for covid-19 and other pathologies provide “certainty and safety”, not without mentioning that the biggest challenge at this time is to complete the vaccination schedules of the entire population in the country in order to reduce risks in the face of complications arising from the virus, especially in the most vulnerable groups.

“Recognizing that this moment is critical, and considering that the population that needs to be vaccinated has decreased, it is the time when we have to do our best to go and look for them, programs to close the application of second doses, that children are vaccinated and their schedules completed,” said the head of the portfolio.

In turn, he explained that it was normal that with a “stressed” system due to the application of doses of the vaccine against covid-19, the EPI was lagging behind, so he invited to join efforts to complete the vaccination of the other pathologies, and thus achieve certification for measles and rubella.

On the other hand, the National Vaccination Program has achieved the application of 79,783,514 doses of the vaccine against covid-19, of which 28,149,364 belong to citizens who have applied the second dose of the biological dose, while 6,296,103 people have been immunized with single doses. Likewise, 9,892,211 booster doses have been applied.

“Under those technical decisions and vision in which we work together, let us remember that in this Ministry we are all always there to work together. We are a single team, we have a single responsibility that is our people, and with that vision, effort and sacrifice, we have to go ahead and close this task”, concluded Minister Ruiz.

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