This content was published on June 30, 2022 – 01:20
Panama City, June 29 (EFE) .- The Government of Panama authorized this Wednesday the purchase of 380,000 doses of the vaccine against covid-19 from the American company Moderna for children between 6 months and 5 years of age.
The guarantee to contract with Moderna the purchase of its vaccine, for an amount of 5,035,000 dollars, was granted to the Ministry of Health (Minsa) by the Cabinet (Council of Ministers).
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on June 17 the emergency use of Moderna and Pfizer’s covid vaccines for children from six months of age.
The use of the Modern pediatric vaccine in children under 5 years of age has advantages in terms of logistics, refrigeration, cost and time to achieve complete immunization, according to the head of the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (Senacyt), Dr. Eduardo Ortega -Sweep.
The child requires only two doses and can be considered “fully immunized” two weeks after the last one, while with Pfizer’s three doses are required, explained the doctor.
Likewise, he pointed out that the greater number of side effects from the Moderna vaccine, usually “transient”, may be due to the higher concentration of the dose, but that by requiring one less portion, the total number of side effects is “similar”.
While the Moderna vaccine is recommended for the population between six months and 5 years of age, Pfizer’s is up to four years, and the minimum interval after the first dose of Moderna is four weeks, compared to eleven for Pfizer.
In addition to the endorsement for the Moderna pediatric vaccine, the Council of Ministers authorized the exemption from the payment of import tariffs for products used in the fight against covid, such as detergents and masks, among others.
The fiscal sacrifice since the pandemic began in these areas, to date, has been $26,762,687, according to official data.
In the Central American country, 8,393,335 doses of vaccines against covid-19 have been administered – the vast majority from Pfizer and the rest from AstraZeneca – with a coverage of at least 87.8% with the first dose in the population over 5 years of age , and 78.5% with the second dose.
Panama added this Wednesday 1,828 new cases of covid-19 and 3 deaths from the disease, plus another 4 from previous dates, to reach 917,740 confirmed infections and 8,359 deaths in more than two years of pandemic.
There are 33 patients admitted for the coronavirus in the Intensive Care Units (ICU) and 189 in the ward, while 14,956 are isolated at home and 10 in hotels.
On this day, 10,012 tests were applied to detect cases of covid, with a positivity of 18.3%. EFE
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