Carlos Mellado acknowledges that it will be difficult to vaccinate 70% of the population in the summer

Health Minister Carlos Mellado acknowledged this Monday that it will be “mathematically difficult” to vaccinate against COVID-19 for 70% of the population before summer, a number recommended by scientists to overcome so-called herd immunity. and that the government saw possible reach between July and August of this year.

“With 41,450 (dose) it is difficult to reach that goal”, the official said regarding the number of first doses arriving on the island each week. Of that total, to date, about 11,000 are received directly by the Walgreens pharmacy chain for the inoculation of employees and residents of 1,146 long-term care centers for the elderly who are part of phase 1-a vaccination.

“I wouldn’t dare give a date (projected for herd immunity) as we wait for an increase in the number of vaccines arriving in Puerto Rico,” he said, leaving open the possibility of achieving the goal, as it increases. significantly the amount of vaccine doses that Puerto Rico receives. “80,000 to 100,000 weekly vaccinations would be a reasonable number to get ahead,” he estimated.

In December, the Adjutant General of the National Guard of Puerto Rico, General José Juan Reyes, estimated that 70% should be reached “sometime from July to August”.

That’s why Mellado said in a press conference that he hopes the federal government will increase the amount of vaccines that states and territories receive. To date, the island has received 352,050 doses of vaccines, of which 321,965 have been distributed. At this point, it was not clear how many of these correspond to second doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 209,356 vaccines have been administered on the island, but Mellado assured that suppliers have already administered more than 300,000 vaccines.