The Minister of Health of El Salvador, Francisco Alabí, announced this Monday the reduction of the time for the application of the third dose of the anticovid vaccine as a preventive measure against the omicron variant.
The official pointed out during a press conference that previously the third dose was applied four months after the second dose, but "based on evidence" it has been decided to shorten the time to three months.
"Reducing the application of the third dose to three months raises our antibodies in a timely manner to be prevented and of course minimize the negative effects"Alabí pointed out.
The head of Health stressed that the decision is made before "the imminent possible arrival of a new variant" which has been described as of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) and which, of course, "can increase the ease of transmission"he added.
Alabí explained that approximately 80% of the target population (more than 5.5 million Salvadorans) already have a dose of the vaccine, 70% with a second dose and almost 20% with the third dose.
El Salvador reports 122,063 cases of covid-19, of which 113,511 people have recovered, 4,726 cases are active and 3,826 Salvadorans have died.
Health personnel have applied 9,597,250 million doses of the anticovid vaccine, of which 4,471,202 correspond to first doses, 4,146,800 to second doses and 979,248 to third.
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