At 7:13 a.m. on Thursday, February 18, 2021, Alba Rocío Montoya, a nursing assistant at the Medellín General Hospital, was vaccinated against covid-19.
This 58-year-old woman was the first person immunized in the capital of Antioquia and, a year later, another 4,518,739 doses were applied in the city (with a cutoff date of February 25, 2022), which shows a good response of citizenship to vaccination.
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“This year many things have happened. In addition, I feel a certain peace of mind because it has not given me covid-19 And, apart from that, I also work in special care and intensive care, which are the services where covid-19 patients are managed. It is a social responsibility that each one of us has to have, I also feel calm that being vaccinated with the three doses, this decreases the probability of getting sick if I get covid-19, “said Alba Rocío.
In a city of just over 2.6 million inhabitants, 1,987,242 already have the complete scheme, which is equivalent to approximately 76.4% of the population, which means that the city exceeds the minimum required ( 70%) by the Ministry of Health to remove the mandatory use of masks in public spaces.
In other figures, 1,959,916 have received the first dose1,617,222 for the second, 571,582 for the booster dose and 370,020 for the single dose.
With this, according to the mayor’s office, 90% of execution of the vaccination plan is reached.
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Alba Rocío Montoya, the first to be vaccinated in Medellín.
“The figures show the high efficiency of this process, the reduction in mortality, in intensive care units (ICU) and in general in all clinical conditions, it is evident that administering at least one dose responds and copes with these conditions. critics that can be presented”, expressed the Secretary of Health of Medellín, Andree Uribe. But then was the so-called herd immunity achieved? The Secretary of Health explained that this – better known as herd immunity – does not depend on a specific percentage.
“However, the Ministry of Health estimated that having around 70% vaccination coverage could achieve this status. In Medellin, 70% was achieved on December 3 of last year, however, let us remember that the last peak began on December 28 of that year,” said Uribe.
For her part, Yessica Giraldo, an epidemiologist and professor at CES University, said that there is increasing evidence that this concept practically does not apply due to the mutation capacity of the coronavirus.
“The characteristics of this virus have shown such a different behavior that it revalues this whole concept, which was extrapolated from other viruses, so we can say that today, Herd immunity is a rather imprecise and inexact concept to consider it as a strategy to face this pandemic”, expressed the doctor.
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The card requirement increased the number of people vaccinated.
Photo:Jaiver Nieto Alvarez / ETCE
Giraldo added that the appearance of the omicron variant changed the landscape, since said collective immunity is something probabilistic that is calculated depending on the reproduction rate of the virus, since if it increases, the percentage of vaccinated people immediately increases as well.
“In the case of omicron, it was calculated that between 85% and 95% of vaccinated people would be needed, but this in the context of a highly effective vaccination, and this variable has increased the probability of reinfection. In other words, despite being vaccinated, it can give you covid and it can give you again,” Giraldo said.
For the Mayor’s Office, The main difficulties that citizens have encountered when getting vaccinated have been reasons such as schedule incompatibility, geographical access or mobility. For this, it adapted strategies such as extramural actions, house-to-house vaccination, in parks, events, bike paths, among others.
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