To date, all healthcare workers should be vaccinated against COVID-19, since 95% of them were already immunized three weeks ago, according to the
National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention and Disease Control (CDC) run by the
Ministry of Health (Minsa).
According to Cesar Munayco, CDC's Executive Director of Public Health Surveillance, all frontline workers were already vaccinated since the last time that this indicator was examined.
However, some individuals from other professional associations and/or those undertaking private practice are still not fully vaccinated.
On the other hand, he mentioned that some members of the country's medical staff refused to be inoculated for personal reasons, which is why it would be difficult to achieve 100% coverage in this group.
Munayco emphasized that a significant decline in COVID-19 cases —as well as in hospitalizations and deaths— among healthcare workers has been witnessed thanks to immunization.
"As for the health staff, a significant decrease in the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths was immediately observed after their vaccination (in February 2021). However, in the case of the elderly, whose vaccination began a little later, an important decline has been recently noted," he added.
According to Minsa, the first priority groups have so far received about 5.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Peruvian territory, of which more than 50% have gotten the second dose and completed the immunization.
With regard to people aged 60 and over, the goal is to immunize 4.5 million. So far, 55.2% of this age group has received the first dose, whereas 24.6% got the second dose.
(END) SRE/LIT/RMB/MVB
Published: 6/15/2021