MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina's Health Ministry issues Covid-19 vax recommendation

People under 50 with comorbidities and healthcare workers were included in the intermediate-risk group

Argentina's Health Ministry issued Sunday a recommendation to patients people over 50 years of age and those at risk to get a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine given the increase in cases reported during the last few weeks. The drug “is essential to maintain adequate protection to prevent complications, hospitalizations, and deaths due to this disease,” the Ministry said in a statement.

According to the latest bulletin number 687, in Epidemiological Week two this year, there were “2583 confirmed cases and 3 deaths with Covid-19.” In the last three epidemiological weeks, “an increase of Covid-19 cases has been verified,” reaching “a number of cases close” to that recorded “during week 35 of 2023.”

Those eligible should get a new shot if more than six months have elapsed since the last dose was applied, regardless of the number of booster doses previously received. People under 50 years of age with comorbidities that do not affect the immune system (chronic diseases and obesity) and those persons at a higher risk of exposure such as healthcare workers were included in the intermediate-risk group and advised to “remember the importance of receiving an annual booster.”

For those under 50 years without comorbidities, an annual booster dose was recommended. The ministry also underlined the importance of measures against acute respiratory infections, such as adequate ventilation, frequent and adequate hand washing, and covering the mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing.

In Chile, Doctor María Javiera Lee, a specialist at the IntegraMédica Plaza Egaña health center, explained about the Pirola subvariant of the SARS-Cov-2 virus that scientists were awaiting “the arrival of this variant due to its high contagiousness and globalization since we are not isolated in the world.”

“This strain will arrive and so will its multiple mutations,” Lee insisted. She also explained that with the vaccination scheme proposed in the country, there was “a cross-reaction with this strain” while insisting that ”·those of us who have complied with the vaccination scheme of the Ministry of Health (Minsal) should be, of course, covered for this variant.“

Lee also pointed out that ”Covid-19 is here to stay, which is why there is a worldwide genomic surveillance, as variants will be expected forever, which will have different clinical, biological and transmission behaviors and will be more or less serious”.