Recently, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection announced that vaccination against covid-19 would cease to be carried out exclusively and massively, and would become part of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), which is the regular vaccination plan that exists in Colombia.
The health authority assured that this transition would be made in order to take stock of what vaccination against covid-19 has been and a new step in the National Vaccination Plan.
The Ministry of Health clarified that this does not mean that Colombians will no longer be immunized against covid-19, but on the contrary, this biological will no longer be applied at exclusive vaccination points that were installed in the middle of the pandemic to move to all the places where vaccines of the regular program are normally applied.
From the Unified Command Post installed by the national health authorities, they reported that it will go from the close to 1,700 points established for covid-19 vaccination nationwide, to the more than 4,000 established for the EPI in the country.
However, according to MinSalud, this announcement does not mean that the covid-19 vaccine is included in the regular program, which has 21 biologics, considering “that evidence and a review process are required to take that step. The announced decision corresponds to an effort as a country to take a next step that also involves taking stock of what these 13 months of mass vaccination were like.”
EPI Transition Process
According to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, this process will not happen overnight. On the contrary, it will be a transition that will take time due to the steps required to make the entire transfer.
The next step, with the information collected, is to make the review and adjustment as necessary, to proceed with the uploading of records to PAIWEB. “We must not forget the payment aspect either, here it is important to have clarity in the IPS accounts, as well as previous drafts and the billing process,” said the official.
All these processes, which will begin on April 22 with the delivery of a national schedule, will be carried out in working groups with the supervisory authorities and the National Superintendency of Health, “to close a process that involved everyone's efforts and that has achieved great results that allowed a revival as a country and protect the life of Colombians,” said the Deputy Minister of Public Health and Service Delivery.
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