In a symbolic act that marked the beginning of the vaccination of COVID-19 in Santa Catarina and the announcement of the distribution of the vaccine in the 295 municipalities, the president of the Catarinense Federation of Municipalities (FECAM) , Paulinho Weiss, stressed that it is a historic moment, full of hope, of organizing municipalism with the health teams and responsible for informing the population about the vaccination steps that must be followed. Paulinho participated in the announcement of the vaccination made by the governor Carlos Moisés, accompanied by the future president of the organization, mayor of Araquari, Clenilton Pereira, who will take over on Wednesday (1/20).

After a challenging 2020 year due to the pandemic, municipal public managers move on to practical action to confront Covid-19. “ The municipalities are now starting to receive the vaccine to start immunization, with the application of the first dose and a minimum interval of fifteen days for the second dose, in the priority groups ”, highlighted the president of FECAM, an entity that started a movement in Brazil mayors and governors in search of the Coronavac vaccine.

In the first half of December, FECAM had signed a protocol of intentions with the Butantan Institute, in case the Federal Government refused to purchase Coronavac or delayed the National Immunization Plan. “ Today, we are following this moment of vaccination, vibrating because we started the mobilization of municipalities in Brazil in search of doses and the recognition of Coronavac as highly effective ”, adds the president. The agreements with municipalities and states were canceled by Butantan after the announcement by the Ministry of Health to acquire all the vaccine production developed by the Sinovac laboratory in partnership with Butantan in Brazil.

In Santa Catarina, on Monday (1/18), 144,040 doses landed, of which 17,480 were destined for the indigenous population and 126,560 for the population of priority groups. In the first phase, 71,040 people will be immunized, according to the State Technical Report of the first stage of vaccination against COVID-19, released after a meeting of the Bipartite Inter-Management Commission (CIB). The immunized are part of the priority group of health professionals, people over 60 years of age institutionalized and indigenous people over 18 years of age. According to the State, the population that meets these criteria is approximately 426 thousand people. As a result, other doses are expected for Santa Catarina, in order to finalize service to the three groups of the initial target population. “It is important for people to know that there is no vaccine for everyone at this time. Only for priority groups and, even so, it will not include everyone at this stage ”, highlighted Paulinho.

Doses per Surveillance Unit – Each Decentralized Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (UDVE) in the State will now receive vaccines from the State Health Secretariat (SES) and the municipalities will manage according to the plan established to serve the priority groups. There are 17 units in Santa Catarina with the following vaccine distribution by region:Araranguá (1,600 doses for the region), Blumenau (6,520 doses for the region), Chapecó (5,360 doses for the region), Concórdia (1,320 doses for the region), Criciúma (3,840 doses for the region), Itajaí (5,400 doses for region), Jaraguá do Sul (1,880 doses for the region), Joaçaba (1,640 doses for the region), Joinville (7,440 doses for the region), Lages (2,880 doses for the region), Mafra (2,280 doses for the region) , Rio do Sul (3,760 doses for the region), Florianópolis (15 thousand doses for the region), São Miguel do Oeste (1,400 doses for the region), Tubarão (3,320 doses for the region), Videira (2,080 doses for the region ) and Xanxerê (5,320 doses for the region) .

The 17 units will be responsible for serving the regional population, totaling vaccine distribution to all 295 municipalities in Santa Catarina. About a third of the population of health workers will receive vaccine, considering the first batch received from the Federal Government. The 54,385 health professionals who will receive vaccine correspond to a proportion of health workers. Of the total to be vaccinated now, 6,026 people are in the group over 60 years of age institutionalized and 7,710 belong to indigenous communities. For health workers, the prioritization criteria are: professionals who work in ICUs COVID-19, in Emergencies COVID-19, in clinical hospital care COVID-19, SAMU professionals,

The goal of vaccination is to reduce serious cases and deaths by COVID-19, reaching comprehensive vaccine coverage in the country. The president of FECAM points out that 2021 will still be a challenging year in tackling the pandemic and the vaccine “ is a light at the end of the tunnel ”. “ We hope that there will be large-scale vaccine production in Butantan and also in Fiocruz, which produces Astrazeneca. That by the end of the year the Brazilian population will be immunized, reaching herd immunity and reducing the spread of the virus and hospital admissions ”, highlights Paulinho.