Each booth costs an average of $ 32,000, according to Alabí. Expenditure on vaccination modules has led to rejection and outrage in the industry from doctors and nurses who describe the action as a waste.
156 huts or modules will be built in El Salvador with the aim of implementing the COVID-19 vaccine. This was announced by the Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí.
The total cost of the booths will be $ 5 million, as confirmed by Alabí during his Tuesday appearance before the special commission investigating the use of the funds to combat the pandemic.
According to the official’s statements, each cabin will cost an estimated $ 32,000. El Salvador still has no vaccines for COVID-19. Among the first countries in Latin America to begin vaccinating their populations are Mexico, Costa Rica and Chile.
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Photo / Courtesy / @ObrasPublicasSV.
“We continue to work on the installation of 156 vaccination modules, we have 2,000 community health teams that will provide care to the population in each of these modules,” the Ministry of Health said on its official Twitter account.
Alabí also assured that El Salvador “has a strong vaccination plan and schedule.” He also justified the new investment by claiming that “El Salvador will not vaccinate a small percentage, not only will 20% of the population have access, but also universal access.”
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The new health strategy has generated various responses. Social network users have criticized first world countries such as the United States to vaccinate in fields, stadiums and other pre-existing infrastructures.
In the doctors and nurses sector, the cost of modules has led to rejection and outrage because they qualify the action as a wastebecause the country’s public health system has 700 health units with adequate cold chain infrastructure to keep the AstraZeneca vaccine refrigerated at the required temperature.
One of the modules to be installed. Photo / Courtesy / @ObrasPublicasSV
“The Health units are equipped with the necessary infrastructure to maintain the cold chain, namely keeping the vaccine refrigerated until the exact moment it is applied. In addition, the people who go to the communities or go on itinerant routes who cannot go to the units carry the thermos that are regulated and standardized with the requirements of the World Health Organization. And that they can work in this case. They don’t need extra infrastructure, it’s not necessary, it’s a waste of resources, ”said former Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Espinoza.
According to Espinoza, health had to be strengthened and spent in health units, where there are already vaccination sites.
“In my opinion that (construction) is a propaganda issue for electoral purposes, but it does not answer the need, the pandemic vaccine (construction) should simply have been added to the effort already in the programs. vaccination programs, in which the country already has a lot of experience, ”he said.
Eduardo Espinoza added that there are 570 Community Family Health Teams nationally based and their work itinerant who are trained for home vaccination. 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.
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Without providing further details on when the COVID-19 vaccine will arrive in El Salvador, Francisco Alabí said the vaccine to be administered is AstraZeneca’s. This is in contrast to the vaccines from the companies Pfizer and BioNTech that are administered in the United States, the European Union, Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica, which require that they be stored in a refrigerator at ultra-cold temperatures of -70 ° Celsius.
Whereas the AstraZeneca vaccine that will be applied in the country is easier to store as it requires the normal temperature of a refrigerator.