QCOSTARICA – This week the vaccination against Covid-19 will continue and that is why the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), known as the “Caja” calls on the population to wait for the call from their Health Area to come for the first dose.
“It is important that people do not crowd the health services or the call centers asking about the vaccine, but to wait for us to make the statement to tell them in which risk group they should be treated and when the place they should go to be vaccinated,” requested CCSS Health Area director Gonzalo Zúñiga.
Health officials have said that vaccination will be continue this week and 2021, but not massively.
“We need the support of the communities so the vaccination process is in a controlled and orderly manner. There will be a vaccine for all risk groups,” said Leandra Abarca, coordinator of the Caja’s Expanded Immunization Program.
It is important to understand that the health areas will gradually receive the vaccines and will be communicating to their assigned population at the moment that they will start the vaccination process.
Costa Rica has purchased a total of six million doses to immunize three million inhabitants over 18 years of age. Of these, 3 million were ordered from Pfizer/Biontech, 1 million doses from AstraZeneca / University of Oxford and 2 million doses through the COVAX initiative.
The order in which people will be summoned to receive the vaccine will be as follows:
- Elderly people residing in a long-stay center, and those who work in these places. Also health, police and emergency personnel.These front-line personnel are made up of: the workers of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, the Ministry of Health, the personnel who work in private hospitals, the National Emergency Commission, Firefighters, the Red Cross and the security police forces, Transit, Migration, prisons, municipalities and the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ).
- People aged 58 or over, regardless of whether or not they have any risk factors. Age will be verified by means of the national identity card or residence card.
- People between 18 and 58 years old with some risk factor such as hypertensive, diabetic, heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, people with chronic kidney disease, grade III and morbid obesity and cancer patients.
- Officials of the Ministry of Public Education and private educational centers, and those who work in the comprehensive care centers (CAI) and shelters of the National Children’s Trust. Also people deprived of liberty and those who work for the 9-1-1 Emergency System.
- Students of health sciences and related technicians in clinical fields of the CCSS; people between 40 and 57 years old without any of the risks previously described, but who carry out work activities where they have contact with other people or have an impact on the productive sector, such as agriculture, construction, customer service, restaurants, domestic workers, among others.
