Peru to date administered more than 164,800 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the native communities of the Amazon, although only 67,000 Amazonian indigenous people are immunized with the complete guideline, reported this Saturday the Ministry of Health.
Since the immunization campaign began last June in the Amazonian indigenous peoples, four months after it began in the cities, the South American country has applied a total of 164,839 vaccines to the inhabitants of these communities.
Currently, there are 97,241 people with the first injection, while another 67,052 have already received both doses, in a process that takes place in a single intervention for all those over 18 years of age, without distinction by age group, as occurred in the rest of the country.
According to the last census of the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI)Some 212,820 Peruvians self-identified as indigenous or originally from the Amazonía in 2017.
According to this, around 45.7% would have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 31.5% would be protected with the full regimen, percentages still far from the national scope, where 76% of the population have already received the first dose and 61% the second.
However the Ministry of Health He specified in a statement that so far 53% of the Amazonian indigenous population that “planned to vaccinate” has already received at least one dose of the vaccine.
INDIGENOUS LINKS
The portfolio also added that through the so-called “Health Intervention Plan for Amazonian Indigenous Peoples against COVID-19“The Peruvian government plans to serve 368,098 indigenous people living in 5,378 rural populated centers in Amazonian areas located in 11 regions of the country.
This plan to strengthen vaccination in the native peoples of the jungle has 77 indigenous liaisons, that is, native settlers who facilitate the entry of health brigades into the communities and provide information in the native languages to the apus (chiefs) of the same.
The objective is to promote intercultural dialogues with native communities in order to spread the benefits of vaccination and clarify the doubts and existing myths about this protection against the COVID-19.
In this sense, a survey carried out in April by the Regional Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the East (Orpio) revealed that 66.2% of indigenous people from the jungle regions of Loreto and Ucayali they did not want to be vaccinated.
Among the main reasons were the lack of official information (29.7%), fear of the vaccine (22.5%), negative comments (13.1%), and fear of dying after inoculation (10.8 %).
But the same investigation revealed that 62.3% would accept to be immunized as long as they receive advice in the health centers of their communities or official information from the Government in native languages.
On the other hand, the Health portfolio reported that this plan also establishes the delivery of toilet kits and masks to community agents for their subsequent distribution to native communities.
EFE
Newsletter All about the coronavirus
The COVID-19 has put everyone on alert. Subscribe to our newsletter All about the coronavirus, where you will find the most relevant daily data in the country and the world on the advance of the virus and the fight against its spread.
NUESTROS PODCASTS:
‘Espacio Vital’: What is known about the effectiveness of vaccines?
– .
