Booster doses in Uruguay to always be with the latest version of the drug

Friday, January 21st 2022 - 09:50 UTC

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”We ask people to go and get vaccinated,” Delgado insisted

Uruguay's Presidential Secretary Álvaro Delgado Thursday said “there will be an annual revaccination” against COVID-19 and announced the Government had secured a supply of Pfizer's drug for that purpose.

Delgado explained that the Government of President Luis Lacalle Pou had reached an agreement with Pfizer “to have 3,700,000 doses for all Uruguayans by 2022”.

The official insisted there would be “an annual revaccination which is what the laboratory, doctors and the vaccine commission recommend today.” Delgado also pointed out some ”400,000 pediatric doses“ were included, but there could be more.

”We are talking about two doses, and Uruguay is going to exceed about 88% of the total population vaccinated,” Delgado stressed.

He added that with the new supply 54% of the population will have had a third dose. He also highlighted the high demand for vaccination of children aged 5 to 11, for whom “the second dose is expected from February so that they are immunized when the school year begins March 7.” The Secretary of the Presidency also said it was “good news that children who want to be vaccinated can.“

Delgado also pointed out that the yearly revaccination will be made with the newest version available of the vaccine, since that was one of the clauses in the agreement with Pfizer. If vaccines cover ”more strains, if they are more efficient [or] have some newer, more effective component, Uruguay will always receive the latest version of the vaccine,“ he stressed.

“The way is the vaccine, we insist with the third dose in the face of this wave of the Omicron variant. We ask people to go and get vaccinated,” Delgado insisted.

Delgado also addressed the Health Ministry's recent decision to change the guidelines for COVID-19 testing: ”It has to do with an issue of what is happening in the world: Uruguay is one of the countries that has the most tests worldwide in relation to its population.“

Regarding vaccination, ”Uruguay has led the world,” Delgado underscored.