Former Deputy Health Minister, Eduardo Espinoza, argues that health units should have been strengthened rather than building the huts.
“Waste” and “unnecessary costs” are the main adjectives that prompted the government’s announcement to build 156 booths or vaccination modules to apply the COVID-19 vaccine, at a cost of $ 5 million, according to information from the minister. of Health, Francisco Alabí.
Each booth will cost an estimated $ 32,000, the minister said; However, there is still no exact information on when the vaccine will arrive in the country.
In social networks, health workers reminded the government that the country’s public health system has 700 health units with adequate infrastructure and a cold chain to keep the vaccine refrigerated at the required temperature.
The cold chain keeps the vaccine cooled to the exact moment it is administered.
Former Deputy Health Policy Minister Eduardo Espinoza considers the booth project an unnecessary expense as 100% of the population will not be vaccinated in a single moment; and it had to be strengthened and spent in health units, where there are already vaccination sites.
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“There is no need to put all that commitment and unnecessary expenditure of resources in all that structure that is being done (…) That’s a propaganda issue, in my opinion, for electoral purposes, but that doesn’t answer the need,” argued he. .
Minister Alabí justified the new investment by asserting that “El Salvador will not vaccinate a small percentage, not only will access 20% of the population, it will also provide universal access” and that there are 2,000 communities. health, which will provide care to the population in each of these modules.
In this regard, Espinoza said there are 570 Community Family Health Teams nationally based and their work itinerant and trained for home vaccination. “ The personnel who go to the communities or who go to itinerant routes, for the population who cannot go to the units, carry the thermos which is regulated and standardized with the requirements of the World Health Organization (to transport the vaccines) . And that they can work in this case ”to transfer the vaccine against COVID-19, Espinoza said.
The former official stressed that it was these health teams that in the past enabled El Salvador to position itself with high vaccination coverage, surpassing Costa Rica in terms of coverage.
Public health physician Francisco Erazo Cadena criticized the construction of the vaccination booths via his Twitter account, saying there is a need to improve the primary health system for the rural population, which has not had access to screening tests for COVID-19 , and wonder if they plan to cover this population with the vaccination booths?
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“The ideal is to strengthen the primary level (health promoters, pickups, clinics)… No vaccination modules,” the doctor objected.
Minister Alabí justified that the cost is because 4.5 million Salvadorans will be vaccinated, but he does not give details of when the COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in El Salvador, only mentioning that the vaccine that will be used is AstraZeneca’s; the storage of which requires the normal temperature of a refrigerator.
Minister Alabí stressed that the government will receive nine million doses of vaccine and will begin immunization on doctors, nurses, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses and government employees such as police, military, firefighters and others.
Without spending cabins in other countries
Parking lots, outdoor venues and event centers are COVID-19 vaccination sites in other countries.
In Britain, for example, the massive vaccination campaign has started for residents of a health center in Cardiff, South Wales. The vaccine used in this population is that of Pfizer-BioNTech.
While in the United States, in Davie Park, Florida, there is a COVID-19 drive-thru (self-service) vaccination center.