QCOSTARICA – Right now, Costa Rica only has the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine, thus the question, if you can choose which vaccine against covid-19 to receive, does not yet apply.
When the time comes, the country receives vaccines against covid-19 from other pharmaceuticals, according to the Minister of Health, Dr. Daniel Salas, people will not be able to choose which one they want. The one available in your health area will be applied.
This is how it is established so as not to put at risk the complex logistics of the vaccination process, during which it seeks to protect 3.7 million people over 18 years of age throughout the country against this virus.
Salas was emphatic that this is not a matter of choice.
“As the vaccines arrive, this is how they are applied to comply with the different vaccination groups. Precisely, the vaccine applied is the one that is offered.
“You cannot put this matter to choice because the logistics completely collapse and we could not continue vaccinating,” Salas said during the press conference on March 16.
By May, the first 204,000 doses from AstraZeneca are expected, in addition to vaccines through the Covax mechanism of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
In recent days, questions have arisen about the AstraZeneca vaccine’s safety from people who developed clots after receiving the injection. However, both the World Health Organization (PAHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concluded that the vaccine is safe and is not associated with an increased risk of thromboembolic events or clots.
What the health centers of the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) do ensure is that the second dose that people receive is from the same pharmaceutical company as the first. That is if your first shot is a Pfizer, so will the second, and so on.
As of Monday, March 15, 248,048 doses had been applied, of which 57,994 correspond to second doses.
Vaccination is being concentrated in the first two prioritization groups.
20% of the doses arriving weekly are destined to the people who remain pending in the first group (first-line covid-19 care personnel), and 80% to those in the second group (over 58 years old).