The Department of Health revealed today, Wednesday, that they expected to receive more vaccines against COVID-19 manufactured by the Pfizer company.
According to the owner of the agency Lorenzo González Feliciano, this does not affect the logic and it is expected that the distribution of the doses will continue in the month of January.
“More vaccines were expected. I think that has happened in all jurisdictions. More was expected from Pfizer on the first hit and it didn’t happen,” the official said at a news conference to update information on how the pandemic was tackled. .
“The process will depend on the availability of vaccines that exist for the land,” the owner added.
Specifically, González Feliciano explained that between yesterday and today, they expected to receive 27,000 Pfizer-manufactured vaccines and 21,000 doses of Moderna.
In fact, the National Guard was preparing to open a vaccination center at the Pedrín Zorrilla Coliseum this morning, but given the large number of medical personnel coming to the site, the event had to close its doors to ensure that everyone in attendance got their vaccine.
According to the Undersecretary of Health Iris Cardona, this decrease in dose reception does not affect the process of dispensing the vaccines.
“In principle, there is no production problem. It is a problem of the speed with which the authorization to release the batches of the vaccine can be given to the Pfizer company,” said Cardona.
“A procedure that neither state nor local government controls. What we are guaranteed … is that while this large amount of vaccines is not delivered at one time, we will consistently be a finite amount for the next four to six weeks, but it is no numbers whatsoever, ”he continued.
For example, the local government expects about 21,400 doses of Pfizer and 21,000 Moderna weekly in the coming month, although 11,000 of the latter are for employees and residents of nursing homes for the elderly.
Despite the delay that this could cause, the Minister of Health does not believe this will be a long-term problem, as around five different companies are expected to distribute their versions of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of February.
Currently, only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are approved, but the doses Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca produce may be available by then.
“It’s good for the population. As long as we have three additional companies that can generate a vaccine, we’re going to see something that may change the phase process a little bit,” said the secretary.
New strain should not resist vaccination
Faced with reports of a new strain of COVID-19 believed to be from the United Kingdom, González Feliciano assured that there is no information at this point indicating that the vaccine should resist.
However, he warned that the people should remain alert as this variant shows a higher transmission level.
“We are seeing an almost absolute response from the world in terms of travel from England to other parts of the world,” he said.
“England has also chosen not to generate travel outside of its jurisdiction,” he added.
Very few reactions to the vaccine
There is still some suspicion among citizens about the vaccination process, but of the thousands of vaccines already administered in Puerto Rico, only eight people have experienced an adverse reaction.
According to Cardona, none of these caused complications in the person’s health and were only symptoms related to fever and muscle pain.
“We’ve had reports of spikes in the body, dizziness and nausea, numbness in one part of the mouth. That’s all been described in clinical studies,” he said.