MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay: Undocumented migrants and asylum seekers eligible for vaccination against coronavirus

To be eligible for immunization, migrants need to have been “in the national territory for a period of more than 90 days.”

The Government of Uruguay Tuesday announced that the right vaccination against the coronavirus also applied to refugee applicants or undocumented migrants who have been in the territory for more than 90 days.

“A new online procedure was enabled to allow migrants or refugee applicants, who do not have an Uruguayan identity document, to register to be authorized to enter the Vaccination System against Covid-19,” Uruguay's Ministry of Public Health (MSP) said in a statement.

To be eligible for immunization, migrants need to have been “in the national territory for a period of more than 90 days,” the statement went on. Applicants for vaccination also need to not have initiated a residence procedure, the authorities explained.

However, the MSP pointed out that the approval of the vaccination request does not imply an allocation of an appointment for the inoculation; only that the person can be listed together with the rest of the population.

After an uneventful 2020, the coronavirus outbreak in Uruguay reached its peak in April and May. It is reportedly the second country in the world with the most deaths from coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, behind only Paraguay.

However, in recent weeks the numbers show a downward trend in deaths, infections and people hospitalized in intensive care. While some experts are still cautious, others believe these are the first results of the strong vaccination campaign which began on March 1.

By Tuesday, 61% of the population had received at least one of the two doses, while 40% already have completed the scheme of Sinovac, Pfizer or Astra-Zeneca.

Uruguay was also the first in Latin America to enable inoculation for adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age and played a pioneering role in vaccinating prison inmates and homeless people.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Uruguay has recorded 356,382 cases, of which 24,195 are active, and 5,316 deaths.