QCOSTARICA – The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS)reported Friday that 9,751 people had already received the first dose of the covid-19 vaccine.
83% were applied to officials of hospitals and clinics of the CCSS, 9.9% to seniors residing in long-stay homes, 2.4% to workers in these long-stay homes and 4.7% to front-line pandemic response personnel such as firefighters and police.
These people should receive their second dose 21 days after the first in order to finish their schedule.
The health centers with the highest number of doses registered are the Hospital Nacional de Niños – Children’s Hospital – (1,067), Hospital México (999), and the Hospital San Juan de Dios (730).
According to Leandra Abarca Gómez, coordinator of the institutional immunization program, health personnel are the occupational group most exposed to the virus and their work is vital to give continuity to health services. While 3% of the population has fallen ill with covid-19, 11% of the CCSS’s officials have already had the disease.
The action of vaccinating them has two objectives: to provide continuity of health services and to lower the risk of a healthy person becoming ill when visiting health facilities.
Within the planning, all the second doses of those who have already received the first are saved, as well as reserves in case there are delays in the arrival of new batches.
Vaccination extends to rural areas
On Monday, January 11, vaccination will begin in 10 hospitals and 18 health areas, several of them outside the Central Valley, applying only to people in Group 1.
The hospitals that will vaccinate starting this Monday are the hospitals, Chacón Paut (known as the Psychiatric Hospital), the Monseñor Sanabria in Puntarenas (started this Wednesday), the Max Terán Valls in Quepos, the Tony Facio in Limón, the Guápiles hospital, the Enrique Baltodano in Liberia, the Upala hospital, the Hospital La Anexión in Nicoya, the Hospital de San Carlos and the Hospital Los Chiles.
The health areas are: Alajuela Norte, Alajuela Oeste, Alajuela Sur, Aserrí, Belén Flores, Cartago, Ciudad Quesada, Curridabat, Escazú, Heredia Cubujuquí, Heredia Virilla, Liberia, Naranjo, Nicoya, San Ramón, Santo Domingo , Tibás Uruca Merced, and Upala.
Side effects
The CCSS reported that 42 people (0.43%) have reported side effects that did not require medical attention. Among the effects are headache, body pain, and fatigue.
These effects were analyzed by the national technical group and were classified as mild in 90% (38 cases) and 10% as moderate (4).
With these numbers, as of January 8, Costa Rica reaches an immunization of 0.19 doses per 100 inhabitants.
In the isthmus, Costa Rica is the only country currently vaccinating. In the rest of North America, Mexico an immunization of 0.05, Canada 0.73, and the United States 2.02.
The country with the highest vaccination in relation to its population is Israel with 19.55 doses per 100 inhabitants (January 7), followed by the United Arab Emirates with 9.52 and Bahrain with 4.25.
According to the international records of Our World in Data, the world average is 0.23 per 100 people.
