Health opens the “VacuCenter” to promote the registration of vaccinations against COVID-19 on the island

The Department of Health in partnership with the Office of Puerto Rico Innovation and Technology Service (PRITS) on Monday inaugurated its “VacuCenter,” a center dedicated to the manual entry of data on people vaccinated on the island against COVIDs. 19 and that will deliver the information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The aim is to work with vaccine providers in entering data from the registries of vaccinated people to close the numerical gap between the number of vaccines received, administered and registered”said Governor Pedro Pierluisi, at a press conference at the Convention Center, where the “VacuCenter” will be located.

According to the CDC database, Puerto Rico has received 1,439,970 vaccines, of which 748,875 have been administered, making Puerto Rico one of the U.S. jurisdictions with the lowest vaccination coverage. But Salud has argued that that number is actually higher and the difference between the ranges is due to a significant delay in the input of the vaccinated people’s data by the providers, a process that is manual.

The designated health minister, Carlos Mellado, also claimed that, in addition to about 150 providers who have agreements with the agency for the administration of vaccines against COVID-19 on the island, there are other entities that receive doses of drugs from Direct, through a contract. with the government, such as Walgreens and CVS pharmacies, about 70 community pharmacies, Costco, Walmart, and the federal prison, entities responsible for recording the records of the people who vaccinate.

Currently, about 100,000 weekly doses arrive on the island, 80,000 of which are distributed by Health. “Within the effort that is being made, we are in talks with each provider so that they can enter all data quickly” Mellado stressed.

The VacuCenter has mainly received registration documents from people vaccinated at major events, such as those conducted by the VOCES Vaccination Coalition and the National Guard. About 250 people work in the center and the goal is to reach 300 people. The total cost of the project, said Enrique Völckers Nin, PRITS director, is approximately $ 700,000.

“The goal is to be able to enter 10,000 daily records. By the end of the week we are going to close the gap quite a bit, ”said Völckers Nin, saying that the ultimate goal is to digitize the entire data entry process for the vaccinees.