God do we live in a time where I had to check if that was a comedy bit? Oh dear.
A Honduran update.
Did you know that Honduras is in the middle of an election year? Well, I say in the middle, it's closer to the end. The polls are much the same as they are in the rest of the planet (satan vs cthulu with a smattering of humans to round things up). And the biggest testament to the fact that we are closer to the "end" of the pandemic than to the beginning is that now, finally, the media is back to reporting on the electoral circus instead of COVID. So let us see how we're actually doing, shall we?
First. here's a handy little chart showing our progress since february.
Blue line represents how many vaccinations we have received, the red one is how many we've applied. Let us take a look at those numbers on the red line in further detail, yes?
I never cease to be amazed by government graphic designers. Anyway, as ever, please disregard the breakdown by color. All of the institutions here are public. The first bar represents total doses, and then a breakdown into first and second doses. Different colors represent different institutions. People who have engaged in vaccine tourism or otherwise acquired a vaccine through private means have no reason to report to the government and, therefore, while the amount of vaccinated people is most assuredly higher than the one reported here, any guesses about how many are pulled straight from the guesser's posterior. Statistics shown here as valid as of September 25, 2021.
The vaccine rollout has slowed down. This was inevitable. we jumped from 960k total doses in July, to 4M at the end of august. Still. an additional million and a half is very welcome. Especially since most of them seem to be second doses (2.2M vs. 1.3M back in August). But what do these numbers mean in terms of raw statistics?
This is a chart denoting Honduras's complete population against the vaccination numbers. In summation:
- 78% of the eligible population (the chart defines the eligible population as "anyone over 12") has at least one dose.
- 47% of the eligible population has only a first dose (This works out to 59.9% of the total vaccinated people)
- 31% of the eligible population has both doses (This works out to 40.1% of the total vaccinated people)
Vaccination centers are now reporting a decrease in the population that is arriving to get vaccinated. The usual suspects are presumably to blame. Nevertheless, I am happy that the vaccine continues to be available for anyone who requests it. There are no special incentives to get you to vaccinate. The mask mandate continues unabated. There has been conversation about boosters making it to the country. I am not especially confident of these being the case, depending on the willingness of the honduran people and the political landscape.
Additional Data points:
Here's an unlabeled and kinda fun graph showing the breakdown of the vaccines applied to the populace. Green is first dose, Orange is second:
October has also reported the lowest amount of reported covid cases, however that may have to do with a decline in tests, as shown in this chart (Grey is the amount of tests, red is the positives)
However, COVID wards seem to hover at around 20% occupancy. Remember, this is country-wide, the ones in my town may be mostly empty, but I have had personal reports of relatives who mentioned that COVID wards on less developed coastal areas are so full that patients are queuing up for when someone in them leaves (alive or otherwise). The newspapers helpfully report that the people who enter covid wards generally have a single or no vaccine dose.
Another note. Our neighbors from the south at Nicaragua, which is going through a difficult political situation at the moment, need only walk to the honduran border, and we will provide them with vaccines, as
this article from VOA (in spanish) reports