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This morning around 6.47, the first shipment of 10,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories arrived in Chile.. This shipment left from Puurs, Belgium, on December 23 at dawn from Chile. After this, the vaccines had a technical scale, before undertaking the final trip to Santiago.
After arriving in Chile around 6.47 am, the shipment was dispatched by helicopter to the National Stadium and after that, to the private company of super freezers Perilogistics.
The president of the Republic, Sebastian Piñera, accompanied by the Ministers of Health, Enrique Paris; of Science, Andres Couve; and Foreign Relations, Andres Allamand, are the ones who received the first shipment of vaccines against Covid-19.
In this regard, the president said that this was “a moment of great joy, much emotion”, since “the vaccination plan starts today.”
“This is the beginning, because the plan for which we have worked and many people have collaborated, contemplates vaccination for all people who are at risk,” he added, reiterating that the vaccines will be free, voluntary, and also “it is safe and effective ”.
“In such a difficult year as this 2020 has been ending, these vaccines and this helicopter are a light of hope,” he said.
After being transferred to the National Stadium, the doses will be taken to the Perilogistics laboratory, where the super freezers are located that will allow them to be kept at the -70 ºC they need. As explained by the president. The vaccines to be used in the Metropolitan Region will be thawed and transferred to the centers where the vaccination of medical personnel will begin: the Metropolitan Hospital, the Central Post Office and the San José Hospital.
Tomorrow, these vaccines are going to be transferred to the regions of Biobío, Araucanía and Magallanes in order to start the vaccination process there.
It should be remembered that yesterday the president announced that these 10 thousand doses, corresponding to the vaccine developed by the companies Pfizer and BioNTech, will be applied to medical personnel working in intensive care units with critical patients. In fact, vaccination will begin in three hospitals in Santiago: the Central Post, the Metropolitan Hospital of Providencia (former Military Hospital) and the San José Hospital.
“Our intention is to vaccinate 100% of these medical personnel in the regions of La Araucanía, Biobío and Magallanes and 1/3 of the medical personnel in the Metropolitan Region,” Piñera explained yesterday.
Meanwhile, Carabineros will be part of the transfer of doses to the regions in aircraft of the institution. The confirmed hospitals where vaccinations will be carried out outside the metropolitan area at this stage are those of Magallanes, the one from Temuco, and is waiting to confirm if it will be the Guillermo Grant Benavente de Concepción Hospital or Talcahuano Hospital the one that will start the inoculations in the Biobío.
“When the second shipment arrives next week we will continue with this vaccination process,” added the head of government.
It should be noted that vaccine planning as the doses arrive in Chile contemplates, firstly, vaccinating medical personnel who work with critically ill patients; then to the rest of the health personnel; to the elderly; Chronically ill; to those who are deployed in the fight against Covid and who also take a special risk (police officers, for example); and then continue with all the rest of the population of our country.
This vaccine was approved by the Institute of Public Health for use in Chile in people over 16 years old.