A few days ago, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection authorized the application of second reinforcements (fourth dose) for all those people with autoimmune diseases or who have undergone organ transplants.
“We are authorizing the fourth dose, (second booster dose), but only on medical recommendation”mentioned the director of Promotion and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gerson Bermont.
(Keep reading: Moderna asks the FDA for authorization for a second booster dose)
The director assured that The Ministry of Health has not contemplated expanding the target population for the fourth dose and its application is maintained only under authorization and medical recommendation.
(What’s more: Ministry of Health continues dose replenishment processes against covid-19)
For populations that require it, the fourth anticovid dose may be applied 30 days after receiving the third dose. In the case of those who were vaccinated with the Janssen pharmaceutical monodose, this new booster will be the third dose.
(Of your interest: Sand approves fourth dose for immunosuppressed and transplant patients in Colombia)
The official also explained that heterologous vaccination will be allowed to complete schemes and made it clear that the application of the Janssen vaccine is also within the package of homologous and heterologous vaccination possibilities for the application of boosters.
The main strategy used by the Ministry of Health has been the execution of the National Vaccination Plan, with which 79,751,465 vaccines have been applied so far, thus reaching 34,435,604 complete regimens and more than 9 million booster doses.
In fact, the vaccination coverage in the country, taking into account an estimated population of 51,049,498 inhabitants, is 19.34% for booster doses (third dose) and 67.45% for complete schedules.
The different territorial entities have been working to increase vaccination coverage in departments and municipalities to achieve coverage greater than 70%. “486 municipalities are above 70% in complete schemes, registering an increase of 9 municipalities in the last week. For their part, 634 municipalities still do not reach 70%”Gerson Bermont argued.
(Also read: Omicron has 59% lower risk of hospitalization than delta variant)
Experts from around the world have considered that the application of a fourth dose is “premature” and warn that the priority should be to complete vaccination schedules and first doses.
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