[ad_1]
SÃO PAULO – Elderly people aged 75 or over, health professionals and indigenous people will be the first to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country, according to the schedule presented this Tuesday 1, by Ministry of Health meeting with a committee of experts and obtained by the Status.
At the meeting, the folder also reported that the perspective is to start vaccination against the disease in March 2021 and end the campaign only in December, when there is a forecast to offer sufficient doses to immunize the target population. There is no forecast to vaccinate the entire population next year, according to the presentation made by the ministry.
According to the agency, the campaign would be carried out in four main phases. In the first, scheduled to begin in March 2021, around 14 million people would be vaccinated. In addition to people over the age of 75 and over, indigenous people and health professionals, people over 60 who are in long-term care facilities will also be immunized in this first phase.
For this phase, the portfolio estimates the need for 29.4 million doses, considering two for each person and another 5% estimated loss. The first phase is expected to last five weeks.
In the second phase, all Brazilians over 60 will be vaccinated, which will be staggered from oldest to youngest. The first group of the second phase will be the elderly between 70 and 74 years, followed by the age groups 65 to 69 and 60 to 64. There will be about 21 million vaccinated people in this group.
In the third phase of the campaign, people over 18 years of age will be immunized with the following comorbidities: diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), kidney disease, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, transplanted solid organs, sickle cell patients, Cancer. (diagnosed in the last five years) and severe obesity (BMI greater than 40). The estimate for this phase is to vaccinate 12.6 million people.
Finally, in the fourth phase of the campaign, workers in the areas considered essential will be protected: teachers from basic to higher education, security and rescue professionals, employees of the prison system, as well as the prison population. The groups number around 4 million people.
For the four phases, the ministry estimates it will immunize some 51 million Brazilians. There is still no definition of how the rest of the population will be vaccinated.
According to the experts present at the meeting, the ministry still considers the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical AstraZeneca as the main immunizer to be offered at SUS, but has not ruled out the purchase of other products. However, AstraZeneca vaccine registration may be delayed after study failures.
In a note released after the meeting, the ministry indicated that Brazil already has 142.9 million doses of covid-19 vaccines guaranteed through agreements between Fiocruz and AstraZeneca (100.4 million) and Covax Facility (42.5 million). million), an initiative of the World Health Organization.
The folder also pointed out that “the planning of the vaccinated population and the phases is preliminary and may change, depending on new agreements for the purchase of vaccines with other pharmaceutical companies, prior regulation of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa).”
More than 70 experts from the ministry, states and municipalities and scientific societies participated in the meeting. The final covid immunization plan is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.
[ad_2]
