The Covid-19 pandemic ends three years with almost 700,000 deaths in Brazil
Despite no longer suffering from a collapse in hospital care, the government is concerned about cooling demand for the vaccine
or World Health Organization (WHO) characterized COVID-19 like one pandemic on March 11, 2020. Three years later, Brazil counts 699,300 dead and more than 37 million infected by the diseaseaccording to data updated by healthy ministry. Despite no longer causing the collapse of hospital care, the new coronavirus still causes fatal casualties: they were 330 in the last epidemiological weekaccording to figures from DataSUS, which shows that attention is still needed in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Because of this, National Vaccination Movementestablished by the federal government on February 27, is focusing on immunization against Covid-19 as it is a world emergency. After the initial high adherence to doses 1 and 2, the search for vaccine from the population has cooled. For the moment, about 68 million people would have been able to get the third dose but did not.
At the end of last month, the application of bivalent vaccineresponsible for protection against the original strain and the variant omicron. Initially, the priority groups are being immunized: the elderly, people with immunosuppression, residents of long-term institutions, employees of these institutions and indigenous people over 12 years old. However, the Ministry of Health recommends vaccination for citizens who have not received booster doses in the last four months. “The full schedule of primary vaccination, in addition to the application of the booster dose, is essential because, over time, the protection provided by vaccines can decline. In this way, additional doses improve the reactions of the immune system to the virus”, explains the secretary of the Health and Environmental Supervision. Ethel Macielwhich adds: “search for the health unit closest to your home to complete the vaccination”.
Encouraging immunization is one of the seven WHO recommendations. Still treating the pandemic as an emergency, the agency also directed its member states to improve data reporting, prepare for future outbreaks, engage in community dialogue and support research to improve vaccines. However, late last year, the organization warned that the virus will not go away and that governments and societies will have to live with the new disease. “The virus is here to stay. The question is how we will manage it. We have the instruments and know it better. But we also have greater population immunity, either because of the vaccine or contamination,” said agency director Tedros Ghebreyesus. “It’s in our hands to end the pandemic.”
