Uruguayan government says it has investigated cases of thrombosis caused by the immunizer, but ensures that ‘benefits outweigh the risks’
The government of Uruguay has been considering the possibility of sending the 48 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccines received last Sunday, 4, for the border with Brazil, revealed this Wednesday, 7, the Minister of Public Health, Daniel Salinas. After the specialists’ analysis of the Anglo-Swedish laboratory vaccine and the problems caused in some countries, with the emergence of some cases of thrombosis, the head of the health portfolio concluded that the benefits outweigh the risks “by far” and that the recommendation is to use it in people over 60.
“With 48 thousand (doses) we can reinforce a particular program, such as increasing or increasing immunization in border vaccination centers,” said Salinas, who participated in a press conference at the government headquarters alongside the president of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, and the secretary of the Presidency, Álvaro Delgado. The minister, a trained neurologist, said that only 205 cases of thrombosis were found, particularly in women under 55, among the 34 million vaccines administered worldwide. “Therefore, (the AstraZeneca vaccine) is considered effective, safe and with a high level of protection in the first dose”, he stressed.
The Uruguayan government, which started its vaccination plan on March 1, considers the campaign’s progress to be positive. Almost 26% of the population, or 911,325 people, has already received at least one of the two doses of CoronaVac or the vaccine from the American laboratory Pfizer. Since March 13, 2020, when a health emergency was declared in the country due to the coronavirus, Uruguay counted 126,987 cases, 26,919 of them still active, with 1,231 deaths from Covid-19, 40 of them in the last 24 hours.
* With information from EFE
