People over 70 years old can receive a third dose without an appointment

“Put the Third dose for people over 70 without barriers It is the goal from now on, that is why it is eliminate scheduling and any obstacle that may arise for them to approach the vaccination points against the pandemic,” he stressed.

Ruiz said that it is important to be clear that whoever comes for their vaccine without being scheduled it must be applied.

“It is a task that EPS and IPS must carry out by training their staff so that all older adults who come to be vaccinated must receive the vaccines they want for booster doses,” he stressed.

The Ministry of Health He said that 55,777 booster doses have already been administered in the country for those over 70 years of age.

Director of promotion and prevention, Gerson Bermontassured that it is important to keep in mind that this third dose will be for those people who have the two-vaccine vaccination schedule, whether Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Sinovac.

“People who have received Sinovac can receive a third dose of the same vaccine, and people who received AstraZeneca can receive a third dose of the same vaccine,” he said.

Bermont noted that the Ministry of Health is offering different alternatives for people who want to change vaccine platforms, as scientific evidence has shown.

“Those who received Sinovac will be able to receive a dose of Pfizer or Moderna and the same as those who were vaccinated with AstraZeneca, the third dose may be from Pfizer or Moderna,” he stressed.

He added that it is important for people to know that this third dose from a different pharmaceutical company than the vaccines they received initially would have some adverse effects that they should be aware of.

“It is important to note that changing the platform may produce more symptoms than those produced by the previous vaccine, and we want to point this out, but it is up to the people, taking into account that scientific evidence says that any of the three modalities works for immunity,” he said.

The Ministry of Health also made a call to regional health departments and EPSs to seek out pregnant women for vaccination.

“Pregnant women must receive the Pfizer doses, so I want to ask the departments lagging behind in vaccination, we want them to come forward and become aware of continuing in vaccination processes, because we have found women after 30 weeks and they have not been vaccinated and that is very serious,” she said.