Chile reaches 5 million vaccinated against the coronavirus 15 days ahead of schedule

Chile on Tuesday surpassed the 5 million people who have received at least one dose of the vaccine against coronavirus covid-19, a figure that encompasses the entire population at risk and which arrived 15 days before the initial schedule in the inoculation plan.

“We have achieved our goal (…) which has undoubtedly been a very difficult job and which has meant the contribution of hundreds of thousands of people”, said Chilean President Sebastián Piñera.

Of the 5 million citizens who started vaccination, 2.1 million have already received the two doses, including adults over 70 years of age, health workers, teachers and members of the security forces.

The next goal set by the Government, which has guaranteed 35 million doses from various laboratories and the Covax platform of the World Health Organization (WHO), is to inoculate the rest of the target population before June (about 15 million people out of a total population of 19 million).

Since the massive inoculation process began on February 3, Chile has been progressing by leaps and bounds and is already the fourth country in the world with the most people inoculated (more than 36% of the population) behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, according to the One World Data registry of the University of Oxford .

Chile It is also the country that vaccinates the fastest in the world, with 1.4 daily doses per 100 inhabitants, according to the same source.

The advance negotiation of vaccines, as well as the extensive network of primary care are two of the key factors that have accelerated immunization.

“Believe me, ensuring vaccines for all Chileans has been an extraordinarily difficult task full of obstacles, but we have accomplished it”The conservative president acknowledged, who announced that new shipments with 4 million more vaccines will arrive in the next few days and that the inoculation of the population between 50 and 59 years will begin on March 24.

Chile, which already totals 900,782 infected and 21,789 dead in one year, is immersed in a second wave, with daily figures similar to last June, when the pandemic was at its worst and the hospital network was on the verge of collapse.

The health authorities reported that this Tuesday 4,591 infected and 17 deaths were registered and that the positivity rate (the number of infections per 100 PCR carried out) climbed to 9.7%.

“This successful mass vaccination is a great ally, a tremendous help, but we do not have to lower our guard”added Piñera, who has improved his citizen approval with the vaccination process after being highly questioned during the first months of the pandemic and after the 2019 protests.