Thousands leave for the U.S., could affect local labor market; Vaccine update; ‘Big Money’ offers 90% return in one week; Art bienal set for December

Miércoles, 30/6/2021

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
Nada.

Titular –

Adelantan plan (Plan advances) – The ministra de Salud, Ximena Garzón, announced that from el 5 al 11/7, people from 55 to 49 years old will be vaccinated. It will start with 55 year olds el lunes, 5/7; 54 year olds el martes, 6/7; and end with 49 year olds el domingo, 11/7. That will start the next phase, “No Contagio,” which will continue to vaccinate by age starting with 48 year olds and ending with 16 year olds. The Chinese company Cansino <Sounds like a dog food – eg. Canimento, Pro-Can, etc.> cancelled the delivery of 6 million doses, but an agreement with Sinovac will bring in 6 million doses in julio and another million in agosto. The US government confirmed it will donate 2 million doses of Pfizer with 108,810 doses arriving this week along with 2 million doses of Sinovac.

Cuenca –

Ecuador is receiving more Covid-19 vaccine doses and appears to have enough to complete its commitment to vaccinate 10 million by September.

AstraZeneca, segunda dosis tras 84 días da mayor inmunidad (AstraZeneca, second dose after 84 days gives greater immunity) – The Ministerio de Salud Pública (MSP) announced that there will be interval of 12 weeks or 84 days between the 1st and 2nd doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It made the decision on the recommendation of the Comisión Asesora de Prácticas de Inmunizaciones de Ecuador (CAPI) after recent clinical trials showed that a longer interval increased the efficiency and the level of antibodies. If your first dose was this vaccince, go to www.lugarvacunacion.cne.gov.ec to see when you’re scheduled for the 2nd dose. Mónia Tarapués, a PhD in pharmacology, said that the 2nd AstraZeneca dose was extended to 84 days in different countries basically by necessity since there was a low availability of the vaccines. <Any cook knows that sometimes you get good results when you run out of an ingredient and need to make changes.> In areas such as the UK, the decision to delay the 2nd dose had good results with no decrease in efficiency. 1,370,000 doses of AstraZeneca arrived in the country el 24/6.

Características (Characteristics) – Mónica Tarapués said that different vaccines have different intervals between doses due to their characteristics. AstraZeneca is a viral vector vaccine; and Sinovac is an inactivated virus vaccine with a 28 day interval between doses. Pfizer is a messenger RNA vaccine with an interval of 21-28 days. J&J/Janssen and CanSino are single dose vaccines. All are safe and so far there are 16 approved vaccinations that have passed rigorous testing with information in freely accessible repositories. <What’s missing in all the rigorous testing is testing over time, but then we didn’t have the luxury of time, did we.>

Analizan impacto de la migración en lo laboral (The impact of migration on labor analyzed) – Miriam Cabrera and Sara Collaguazo, economists and researchers, are conducting a study on the impact that immigration to the US has on the labor market in Azuay. From just enero to mayo, 56,400 citizens who left Ecuador, mostly to Mexico, have not returned. In 2020, not less than 50,000 left and did not return and they estimate that 15,000 will leave in junio. Along with the increase in migration is an increase in unemployment which reached 8.2%in the 1st quarter of 2021.

Between 2014 and 2019, the percentage was 5.4%. Most of the migrants are between 25 & 54, and 65% of the people who left and did not return are from rural sectors. Collaguazo recounted that the wave of migration has reduced the labor force in sectors such as construction and agriculture and hopes to confirm this hypothesis. Lautaro Durán, an architect and builder, said that some of his albañistas (bricklayers – your word for the day) with 20-25 years of experience left for the US during the pandemic. He said that <and here are your construction trade words for the day> gasfiteros, pintores, carpinteros, lacadores (plumbers, painters, carpenters, lacquers), and other trades are scarce. <They’re probably all filling the labor shortages in the US.>

Bienal: perparativos en marcha (Biennial: preparations underway) – Preparations are underway for the 15th Bienal de Cuenca which will start in diciembre. 34 artists have been selected and the exhibit spaces that have been selected are the Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno, el Museo de la Ciudad, and the Salón del Pueblo. The Bienal is also making a series of educational fichas (cards, records) featuring winners of past Bienals as a teaching tool for children and teens <And Philistines like me who need the art explained.> You can find these fichas at https>//blog.bienaldecuenca.org/wp/content/uploads/2021/06/b_Fichas-educativas-coleccion-bienal.pdf.

Sucesos –

Alertan riesgo de invertir en captadoras de dinero (Warning of the risk of investing in money collectors) – The Superintendencia de Bancos is warning citizens of the danger in investing in “supuestas empresas” (alleged companies) offering tempting returns. Empresa “Quevedo Inversiones – Big Money” in Quevedo is attracting long lines of people from as far away as Azuay by offering 90% returns in 1 week. The company does not have authorization from the Superintendencia de Bancos to function as a financial entity and SRI doesn’t have a record of it. <I hope you’re all too smart to go stand in that line.> Police raided “Big Money” offices Wednesday morning but the whereabouts of the owner, Miguel Nazareno, is unknown.

Región –

Gualaceo en pos de distinción artesanal (Gualaceo in pursuit of artisanal distinction) – The Consejo Mundial de Artesanías is evaluating Gualaceo to receive a “Ciudad Artesanal del Mundo” designation for its macana (ikat weaving). An international jury visited the city last week to learn more about this craft.

Descuentos y compras –

Supermaxi – Miércoles, 20% discounts on fruit, vegetables, flowers, and plants.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper (please don’t ask her for them). The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.