Chile begins mass vaccination of the fourth dose in the midst of a wave of infections

Chile began vaccination this Monday with the fourth dose against covid-19, for now only in those over 55 years of age, in the midst of a wave of infections.

To mark the beginning of the new phase of the successful vaccination process in chiliPresident Sebastián Piñera went to a health center during his summer vacation (austral) in the south of the country and was inoculated with the second booster or fourth dose.

“In order to protect ourselves, we have followed a strategy from day one, which is to anticipate, go one step forward so that the coronavirus does not catch us by surprise,” said the conservative president in a subsequent statement to the press.

The fourth dose had already begun to be administered from January 10 to immunocompromised people, health personnel and the elderly in long-term residences.

Of the 18.9 million people in the target population -from 3 years onwards-, only 2.1% received the fourth dose so far.

89.6% completed their basic vaccination schedule -single dose or double dose- and 73.9% received the third dose or booster dose.

So far the country has purchased 51.5 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, CanSino, Sputnik and Janssen.

“Nothing is enough because the virus and, especially, (the variant) ómicron has a contagious capacity that has surprised the entire world and has caused the collapse of the health systems of the most developed countries in the world”Pinera pointed out.

chili This fourth dose process begins in the midst of a wave of infections with daily record figures above 30,000, although the high vaccination rate helps ensure that most cases are mild and do not lead to hospitalization or death.

The country has accumulated 2.3 million infections and almost 40,000 deaths since the first case of coronavirus was registered in the country on March 3, 2020.