Tourists and Cariocas who intend to enjoy Carnival out of season in Rio de Janeiro will need to prove that they have been fully immunized against Covid-19, including the booster dose, both to enter the Sambadrome and in bars, restaurants and closed establishments.
However, the mandatory vaccination passport may be out of date, according to members of the city’s scientific committee.
The end of the document requirement should happen soon after the samba school parades have ended. This is because the city hall of Rio de Janeiro and the Special Committee to Combat Covid-19 will meet, next Monday (25), to discuss the flexibility of the measure.
With this, the expectation is that the voucher will no longer be charged in the capital of Rio de Janeiro from next week.
The sanitary doctor and former Minister of Health José Temporão, a member of the committee, confirmed that the maintenance or not of charging for the vaccine passport is the main topic on the agenda.
Alberto Chebabo, another member of the group, admitted to CNN that the end of mandatory vaccine passport “may happen” next Monday. He explained that the restrictive measure lost its reason after the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, announced, last Sunday (17), the end of the state of national health emergency due to Covid-19, established in February 2020.
“The matter will be discussed, but I think it could happen [na próxima segunda-feira]. Even because with the end of the emergency decree [anunciado pelo governo federal]these restrictive measures fall,” said Chebabo.
If the easing actually takes place next week, it will happen sooner than planned by the City of Rio de Janeiro. Initially, the expectation of the Municipal Health Department was that the requirement would only cease to apply when 70% of the target audience received the booster dose in Rio de Janeiro. Currently, the indicator, according to the panel of the city hall of Rio, is stationary at 63%.
fourth dose
In addition to making the collection of the vaccine passport more flexible, the capital of Rio de Janeiro also reassesses the criteria for applying the fourth dose. The mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, published on social media, this Tuesday, the possibility of expanding immunization.
“I just asked the new health secretary Rodrigo Prado, to organize the application of the second booster dose for people over 60 years old still in April!”, he wrote.
According to the city hall panel, about 75,000 people received the second booster dose in the city. Currently, elderly people aged 80 years and over are eligible to receive it with at least four months of interval after the third dose.
In a note, SMS said that it awaits the sending of new doses by the Ministry of Health to be able to expand the vaccination of the fourth booster dose for everyone over 60 years old.
Source: CNN Brasil
