The Ministry of Health and the Costa Rican Social Security Fund reported on the start of vaccination against COVID-19 with the doses of the pharmaceutical AstraZeneca. The starting activity took place Monday, April 19th, at the Social Development Center (Cedeso), in front of the Carlos Durán Clinic.
To date, only doses of the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer / Biontech have been applied in Costa Rica. The previous week, the Commission of the National Vaccination and Epidemiology Commission authorized its use. It will be done initially with the first group, which is made up of first responders.
“The Commission defined that Pfizer be used in Group 2. At this time we are only applying Group 1 and 2, so AstraZeneca will be used for Group 1,” said Leandra Abarca, coordinator of the CCSS Expanded Program on Immunization.
Vaccination
The formula will be applied to the population over 18 years of age, with no age or gender limit, depending on the progress of the vaccination campaign in the different groups. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are excepted. The AstraZeneca vaccine schedule is two doses.
The approval in the country comes after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the go-ahead for its use. This decision was made despite detecting its link with the appearance of atypical coagulation cases. The country already has 43,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, acquired through the Covax mechanism.
