Chile begins vaccination against the coronavirus in schools for children from 6 to 11 years old

Chile began on Monday the vaccination against the coronavirus COVID-19 in schools for children from 6 to 11 years of age who have the written authorization of their parents while the immunization of children from 12 to 18 years of age progresses.

The process began with the students of a school in the Providencia district, in the Chilean capital, with the presence of the Undersecretary of Health, Paula Daza, and the Minister of Education, Raúl Figueroa.

As is almost always the case with children, some were scared about having to get vaccinated while others said they were happy to be immunized in their schools because it prevents them from going to public vaccination centers.

Among the first to be vaccinated in his schoolyard was 11-year-old Alien Araya, who stated that “the precautionary measures (of) washing hands, keeping the mask up and avoiding close contact, even if he is still vaccinated, you have to take them (because) the vaccine does not protect 100% ”.

Minister Figueroa recalled that vaccination is voluntary, so “You must have a simple authorization from the parents so that children can be vaccinated.”

Students from 6 to 11 years old will receive the vaccine from the Chinese Pharmaceutical Sinovac. Daza said that there are about 1.5 million students in the first educational cycle and that the idea is to immunize them all with the first dose during October and the first week of November and complete the scheme in December. On average, 84% of 12-17 year olds have already received the first dose.

Chile has already vaccinated 90% of the target population – 15 of its 19 million inhabitants – and 87% have completed the process. In addition, since mid-August a booster dose has been inoculated to those over 55 years of age and this week those under 54 years of age are joining.

The advance of vaccination has resulted in a large drop in infections during the past four months, although in recent days a slight increase in infected has been observed in the country, where the circulation of the contagious Delta variant predominates. The average number of infections in the last week was 620 daily cases.

Chile registers 1.6 million infections since the arrival of the pandemic and more than 37,000 deaths.

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