In an interview with CNN Radio, the municipal secretary of Health of Rio de Janeiro, Daniel Soranz, stated that the city does not have sufficient coverage of the 3rd dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 to contain the advance of the Ômicron variant in the capital.
Although the secretary assesses that Rio has a high rate when compared to other cities in the country, 30%, he reinforced that “we need greater adhesion. 800,000 Cariocas can now look for health centers to take the booster dose, we hope they get vaccinated in the first week of January.”
According to Soranz, Ômicron is already causing an increase in cases in the city.
The variant is circulating in the community and the increase in cases is already a reality, we came from a favorable scenario, with a reduction in cases for 17 weeks, hospitalization and deaths and serious illnesses are increasingly rare, there are only 30 hospitalized patients with covid in the city.
Daniel Soranz, Municipal Health Secretary of Rio de Janeiro
“The month of December was the month with the lowest mortality since the beginning of the pandemic, there were several days with zero deaths per covid, but there is a change of scenario with mild cases, Ômicron is already a reality, and it should certainly cause an increase in cases in the next few days”, he added.
Soranz said that Rio experienced an influenza epidemic, but “today has 82% fewer cases of flu than in the peak weeks, in late November and early December.”
However, he believes that “the outbreak of influenza and flu in the city of Rio has already passed, it is decreasing, but there is an increase in covid again, we were already expecting a decrease in influenza with the amount of vaccines applied, 3 million cariocas were immunized.”
Children’s Vaccination
Soranz’s expectation is that the city of Rio de Janeiro will start immunizing children on December 16, a Sunday.
A public hearing of the Federal Government discusses the immunization of this age group, although the arrivals of infant doses of Pfizer are already foreseen – a formula approved by Anvisa in December.
Production by Thayana Araújo
Reference: CNN Brasil
