The Government does not want to wait any longer. As of this Monday, the almost door-to-door ‘hunt’ of people who have not yet received a single dose against covid 19, and which is estimated to be about 7.3 million, is formalized in the country.
What the Executive wants is for this population group to be immunized in the shortest possible time so that Colombia moves towards an endemic phase of the coronavirus, which means that it will continue to infect the population, but will reduce its contagion capacity and, therefore, , their mortality. When that happens, it will become a virus similar to influenza, with transmission peaks that, however, do not put the health system in check.
In fact, the Ministry of Health was explicit in asking the health promotion entities (EPS) to immediately undertake this task, while the high government is beginning to look for ways to bring biologicals to “difficult” areas. ” on account of the episodes against public order that have been experienced in the last two weeks.
The national strategy
Fernando Ruiz, Minister of Health, warned that the country has enough Janssen vaccines – which only require one dose to complete the scheme – “to reach complex areas, but we are going through a difficult time in terms of public order and, therefore, For this, we must take refuge in the Medical Mission”.
And although this policy from the Executive seeks to reach rural areas with more force, the intention of asking the EPS to give speed to the ‘hunt’ of unvaccinated is to attend to the small urban centers that for various reasons have not been able to be benefited from the National Vaccination Plan which, among other things, is free. This is a strategy that public health experts call “active search” and assumes that the health system does not wait for patients to go to vaccination points, but rather to identify them, track them down and invite them to apply their anticovid doses.
For this reason, Ruiz said that the EPS should motivate those who need to be immunized, even if they are people who consider that they have a lower perception of risk. In fact, he argued that it is necessary to go after those who have developed resistance to vaccination and that, therefore, neighborhood operations are essential.
The Minister of Health noted that the search for unvaccinated people also goes through the open vial policy, with which health professionals must prioritize injecting people so that some doses are lost due to not having enough patients for a day. of vaccination.
“It is a good practice worldwide, regulated by the WHO and PAHO, and for which we are already working on a decree, which also regulates the issue of what is called a strategic reserve of vaccines,” Ruiz emphasized.
Meanwhile, the director of Promotion and Prevention of the Ministry of Health, Gerson Bermont, launched a call so that self-care is strongly increased as the guidelines implemented during the pandemic are reduced.
Bermont, who participated in a unified command post (PMU) to analyze the covid situation in the country – and which was led by Minister Ruiz – also confirmed that measures such as lifting the restriction on wearing the face mask in open spaces in municipalities having 70 percent or more of their population vaccinated does not mean that the pandemic is over.
According to official anticovid vaccination reports, Colombia already has 41.2 million citizens with at least one dose (81.1%) and about 33.3 million with their complete immunization schedule (65.7%).
In addition, until this February 25 there are 8.4 million people (16%) who have received the so-called third or reinforcement dose