translated from Spanish: Minsal will adapt premises to continue vaccination during rainy days

The long lines and crowds that were reported during the first week of the booster vaccination in some inoculation centers worried about twenty mayors, who met to ask the Ministry of Health for better coordination. The community leaders of the Metropolitan and Valparaiso regions signed a letter warning of the risks of these queues being replicated this week, when heavy rainfall is expected in the south-central area on the same days that older adults were called upon to receive their third dose of covid.” We are going to have people 72 years old going to the vaccination precincts on days when we have a lot of cold and rain, “said on Radio Cooperativa one of the signatories, the mayor of Independencia Gonzalo Durán.The mayors of communes such as Santiago, San Joaquin, Cerrillos, Ñuñoa, Quilicura, Renca, Macul, Valparaiso and La Cisterna asked for greater flexibility in the campaign to be able to adapt or slow down the calendar if necessary. Although some like Lo Espejo announced that they will only vaccinate in roofed enclosures, others like La Pintana warned that they do not have the conditions to receive the elderly with rain.” The volumes of people make it impossible for people not to have to wait or stand in line in the open,” said Maipú Mayor Tomas Vodanovic.La letter was received by the Minsal. Minister Enrique Paris said that his requests will be analyzed, which also include improving the distribution of doses and resuming vaccination to laggards on weekends to decompress the premises. However, he was reluctant to change the calendar as it can “disorientate” the population and expose the elderly to a drop in immunity. In return, he said they will meet with municipalities to adapt vaccinations so that the process is done as “quickly, easily and comfortably as possible” for the elderly, “not in the rain or in cold lines.” The undersecretary of Public Health, Paula Daza, said that the coordination has already started, although she assured that “to the extent that we see that the climate situation is complex (…) some flexibility may occur.” Rain until FridayAlth, in some areas the rainfall started over the weekend, for today a second more active frontal system is expected to arrive in the country, which keeps six regions from the RM to La Araucanía on preventive alert. The forecast of the Meteorological Directorate of Chile indicates that the rains reach the central area tomorrow, worsening on Thursday and Friday, predicting up to 45 millimeters of falling water in the Greater Santiago valley, the highest record of this winter. To prepare, capital authorities arranged the surveillance of points of possible flooding and called on the population to avoid approaching riverbeds or going to mountain areas, since there could be “significant landslides of rocks and earth”, given the winds of up to 50 km / h that are expected tomorrow night, “said delegate Felipe Guevara.” We have to take this episode seriously. It is probably going to be the hardest so far this year,” added Governor Claudio Orrego.Foci of increaseThe Minsal reported a new weekly drop in infections, of 11%, with 754 infected yesterday, but warned of a slowdown in the rate of decline and an increase in cases in Ñuble, Aysen, and Magellan. The portfolio is concerned about an outbreak of 17 Delta infections in an O’Higgins family.

Original source in Spanish