The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) expects that, as of January 11th, the vaccine against COVID-19 will begin to be applied in the highest priority medical centers located outside the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM).
The institution added that, if the weekly deliveries agreed with the Pharmaceutical company (33,150 doses) are achieved, by the end of the month all the CCSS health establishments will have the capacity to inoculate a part of the adjacent population, always according to their group of prioritization, explained the Logistics manager, Esteban Vega.
Deep freezers pending arrival
This, despite the still pending arrival of 14 freezers that were acquired by the National Emergency Commission (CNE) to store and distribute the vaccines of the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, which need to be kept at temperatures of -80 degrees. However, thanks to the collaboration of the Technological Institute of Cartago (TEC) and the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the entity has its refrigerators available to store up to 239,000 doses.
Coordinated strategy
“The Fund has planned with the regional and local levels a strategy that allows the distribution of the amount of doses projected by each of the health centers outside the Greater Metropolitan Area that have been identified as priorities,” he said. “This will ensure that the shipments are made safely and without jeopardizing storage and distribution conditions once they are in the regions”, he added.
According to the coordinator of the Expanded Immunization Program, Dr. Leandra Abarca, this week there will also be 17 new health centers that will be able to vaccinate officials from the first line of care.
First dose
According to data provided by the CCSS, 2021 started with a total of 2,455 people who have already received their first dose of the vaccine. They should receive a second dose within 21 days after the first inoculation.
Of the total number of people who have been vaccinated, since December 24th, 68.2% are CCSS health workers, according to data provided by Abarca. The rest was applied to older adults residing in retirement homes and employees of these centers. In fact, the institution reported that, so far, only two cases of possible adverse reactions to the drug have been notified.
