Colombia Tops 50 Million Covid-19 Vaccinations

Colombia’s Ministry of Health announced November 11 that as of midnight two days ago (November 9), more than 50 million shots of Covid-19 vaccine have now been applied here nationally.

Of that total, more than 22.3 million people have completed their required two-shot (or in the case of Jannsen, one-shot) regimen, while 27 million have received at least one shot.

Meanwhile, the Ministry added that more than 500,000 children here between the ages of three and 11 have been vaccinated against Covid-19 — more than 7% of the total of this group of children, since this group started getting shots November 1.

While the Ministry noted that such children are in general less vulnerable to the most dangerous effects of Covid-19 – that is, compared to elderly people and other people with co-morbidities – nevertheless 253 children under 18 years old here have died of Covid-19, while more than 400,000 have been sickened by this virus, according to the Ministry.

Meanwhile, Medellin officially reported November 10 that 3.13 million people here have gotten Covid-19 shots, of which 1.46 million have now completed the two-dose regimen while another 1.64 million have gotten at least one shot.

As for all of Antioquia (including metro Medellin), more than 7.1 million shots against Covid-19 have been administered here, with 2.65 million having now completed their two-shot regimen, according to the Antioquia departmental government.

On more positive fronts, millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines from various manufacturers have arrived or are arriving in Colombia this month, boosting crucial supplies to cities nearly everywhere here.

Among this new flood of supplies: 2.2 million more doses of Biontech/Pfizer vaccines, generously donated by the government of Germany.

As a result, Colombia now has ensured that it has enough vaccines already available here to meet its target of having 70% of its population vaccinated against Covid-19 by year-end 2021, according to the Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Ministry began offering reinforcement doses to populations 70-years and older since October, then added the cohort of those 60-to-69 since November 5.

A popular version of third-dose-reinforcement here involves administering AstraZeneca vaccines to those earlier vaccinated with Sinovac vaccine — resulting in a statistically valid 97% effectiveness against dangerous levels of Covid-19 infection, according to the Ministry.