A new batch with 186,000 doses of vaccines against COVID-19 arrived at the Ministry of Health (Minsa), on the morning of Thursday, January 18.

They are bivalent vaccines that have to counteract the effects of the XBB 1.5 omicron variant, which according to specialists, is the one that has mostly generated the 1,800 cases and nearly 15 deaths that were recorded in the first weeks of 2024. They will be applied from Monday to Friday from 7:00 am in all Minsa medical centers.

Itzel de Hewitt, a Minsa vaccine coordinator explained that a single dose will be given to the population that already has two or more doses of the previous covid vaccine. However, those who do not have any doses will be given three doses of the new vaccine.

The new doses will be applied by the nursing teams at the health centers. It is estimated that around 4,800 will be applied to children from 6 months to 4 years old, and around 149,000 will be applied to the population over 12 years old.

Given the increase in COVID-19 cases in the country, with 15 deaths so far this year health authorities have called on the population to get vaccinated and maintain self-care measures.

During the week of January 2 to 14, the Minsa Epidemiology report shows that 1,843 new positive cases of COVID-19 were reported, raising the accumulated number of confirmed cases to 1,057,841 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.