As of the previous week, in Costa Rica, 42,553 people had completed the COVID-19 vaccination protocol. This means that they received the two doses that, according to the prescription of the vaccine developer, the Pfizer / BioNTech consortium, are necessary to achieve immunity greater than 90%.
Leandra Abarca Gómez, from the Epidemiological Surveillance of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), affirmed that the advance in the application of second doses allows creating a protection barrier around the population that could be more vulnerable to COVID-19.
She argued that 96,948 vaccines were applied, between first and second doses, to achieve a national vaccination rate of 1.88 per 100 inhabitants.Authorities hope to vaccinate a total of 3.7 million people. Until the previous January 19th, the government reported the entry of 104,325 vaccines by Pfizer.
81,000 to first responders
“Of that total, 81,169 have been applied to first responders and 15,779 to the elderly and workers in long-stay homes. Vaccination is maintained in all regions of the country”, explained Abarca. This means that almost 84% of those immunized are health-related civil servants.
The region with the highest vaccination rate is the Central South region where 47,138 doses have been applied, to achieve a vaccination rate of 2.45 per 100 people, detailed Abarca. She outlined that as more doses of vaccine enter the country, it will continue to be distributed to all areas of the national territory to advance the immunization process.
New arrival of vaccines
So far, the Health authorities have no clarity on when Pfizer deliveries of vaccines to the country will resume, as the pharmaceutical company has not issued official information in this regard.
The last time vaccines entered the country was the previous January 19th, when Pfizer delivered 16,575 doses and announced a three-week hiatus to make adjustments to its production and delivery processes. However, the governments of neighboring Mexico and Panama announced, respectively, that this week shipments of vaccines will arrive in their countries.
