Thousands of additional COVID-19 vaccines are coming in

The designated Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Doctor Carlos Mellado, reported today that 6,000 additional vaccines per week will arrive and that several pharmacy chains will also participate in the COVID-19 vaccination effort, urging people over 65 to wait to be contacted so that their turn .

As announced by the secretary, chain pharmacies Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Sam’s and Amigo have already begun vaccination and are expected to continue in the coming weeks. In addition, as more vaccines become available, they will add about 30 pharmacies in the community.

“We will continue to vaccinate patients over the age of 65. And it worked. We are currently in a good situation for Puerto Rico. Every day we improve, and I feel really good about what is happening, ”said Mellado.

He assured that as of today, Friday, 101,967 adults over the age of 65, 38,561 teachers, 2,939 bedridden people, 1,926 people with intellectual disabilities have been vaccinated. He added that 267,050 first doses and a further 114,307 second doses have been delivered.

He explained that as part of the cities’ vaccination efforts, known as vacutour, they would be in Cataño, Vega Baja, Carolina and Loíza tomorrow Saturday, with 1,000 vaccines in each of the points. He added that the vacutour would later take place in Coamo, Maricao, Orocovis, until it passed through all the municipalities, “along the line of, number one, infections; number two, number of elderly people; and number three, access. And we are going to follow that specific line ”.

Meanwhile, there will be massive testing activities tomorrow known as Coviveo in Humacao, Guayanilla and Moca.

“We are going to visit all the cities, we are going to do activities to vaccinate more people and we are going to achieve our goal,” he insisted.

Regarding the participation of the pharmacy chains, he explained that Walgreens has already started today, with 10,700 weekly vaccines, which will be distributed in 103 stores across the island. CVS starts next week (2,000 vaccines at the Fajardo store), Costco and Walmart (4,000 shots, 25 stores). Walgreens has already vaccinated 37,911 long-term care patients.

Dr. Mellado He urged the population to be patient and assured everyone will receive their vaccine. In particular, he addressed people over 65 and assured that “they do not have to queue” as they will be approached by the Department of Health or a participating pharmacy to provide them with a service and that they can be vaccinated.

He repeated his call for calm, recalling that there are about 600,000 people over the age of 65 and that it will therefore take time to vaccinate them all.

“We want people to be calm, we want them to know that the vaccine will reach them,” Mellado repeated. “But they need to understand that the number of vaccines is limited and that vaccination is done by the number of people with the highest incidence. And that’s something that I didn’t invent, it’s something that is the normal vaccination process ”.

“These services will reach the patient at home, either by mail or by phone. Therefore, the patient does not have to enter any page, he does not have to call anywhere. It’s just his turn, ”he explained. But there are over 600,000 65-year-old patients in Puerto Rico. Therefore, the exhortation and communication from me will be calm. The vaccine will come, the vaccine will not end. The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) plans to continue sending vaccine after vaccine until all people in the states, territories and Puerto Rico have been vaccinated ”.

In another case, the physician noted that the DS has issued guidelines to the Department of Education that any school that opens must comply with. He explained that these guides are based on the guides for this purpose provided by the CDC and enhanced with local tools, such as the bioportal and tracking system. He added that the DS will inspect the schools to make sure they are complying with those protocols and will also monitor them continuously. However, he clarified that the decision when a school opens lies with the Ministry of Education.

Aside from being a public policy issue, Mellado defended personally resuming classes for “ a number of other health reasons, ” including nutrition, immunization outside of COVID-19, dental care, and the fact that numerous pediatricians and psychologists “say that children should interact with each other.”

With regard to the vaccination of health workers, the doctor indicated that those health workers who for whatever reason have not been vaccinated can still do so. He recalled that in the first phase of vaccination, 110,000 health workers had been vaccinated.

‘They have access to the vaccine. It does not mean that we have already completed that phase. Any health worker who is still missing and decides to get vaccinated, we must of course protect him, ”he said.