300,000 people will be vaccinated before the end of the year and 10 million in January and February – Telam

President Alberto Fernández has revealed that the national government will sign the contract with the Russian Federation “this week” to receive the Sputnik V vaccines against the coronavirus and has announced that it is expected to vaccinate “300,000 people before the end of the year “.

“This week, we sign the contract with Russia. We hope to receive the vaccines from this country before the end of the year, so we will be able to vaccinate 300,000 people before the end of the year.”the president said in statements to El Uncover Radio.

The president’s announcement comes amid an international context in which Britain and Russia will begin vaccinating their populations in the coming days, while the United States plans to vaccinate 100 million people by the end of the month from February.

In this regard, the Head of State declared: “I have already given the last reading of the contract (with the Russian Federation) and it is ready to be signed between today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow”, and predicted that five would be vaccinated in Argentina. million people in January ”and the same amount in February.

“The first to receive the vaccine should be health workers, security personnel, teachers, people over 60 and people with common illnesses.”“

Alberto Fernandez

Fernández was “very grateful to the Sovereign Fund and the government of Russia” led by President Vladimir Putin and stressed that “they were absolutely supportive and gave him great speed by giving us the vaccine we needed “.

In the midst of the second wave of Covid-19 infections that hit Europe and North America, the President spoke of the pandemic situation in Argentina, noting that “we are still following the experience” of the ‘northern hemisphere, where he felt that there was a “I relaxed with the summer, everything was open and when the fall came a lot of crates went on with tremendous speed.”

“It reminds me of the possibility that the second wave will reach Latin America in the fall,” reiterated the president., who underlined that in the country “we have the advantage of this European experience and we will be able to arrive – in the autumn – with the vaccine which will minimize the damage of the second wave”.

Regarding the vaccination campaign, Fernández said Argentines “have to do an epic during the summer, trying to vaccinate those most at risk first.”

“The first to receive the vaccine are expected to be health workers, security personnel, teachers, over the age of 60 and those with common illnesses,” which would represent “about 13 million people. As of March, we will receive the vaccine from AstraZeneca and Oxford and we hope to receive the vaccine from Pfizer as well, ”said the chairman.

Specifically, the American companies Pfizer and the German BioNTech – which received authorization on Wednesday for the emergency use of vaccines against the coronavirus in the United Kingdom – submitted the same request for authorization to the National Administration of Medicines, Food and Technology (Anmat), which already assesses those of Oxford / AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik.

Vaccination in the provinces

While waiting for the arrival of the first doses of the Russian vaccine, the Nation and the provinces are moving forward with the future vaccination plan across the country, the main challenges of which are the distribution and refrigeration of doses.

For it, It has been learned that the province of Chubut is “evaluating the possibility of using fishing factories operating with powerful cold equipment to store batches of vaccine” against the coronavirus.

From the government of Patagonia, they specified that there is “a sufficient stock of ultra-freezers, in particular in the hemotherapy departments of the main hospitals”.

Meanwhile, Santa Fe Minister of Health Sonia Martorano reported that In the first 24 hours of operation of the registry of “volunteers” to apply the vaccine in this province, “2000 people have registered” and he did not rule out analyzing “remunerative compensation for those who actually participate in the operation which will begin around mid-January next year”.

Announcing on November 27 the next phase of restrictions due to the pandemic that runs through this month’s 20, the president said that the national government’s target is that “between January and February, before the arrival of the fall, the 13 million people considered at risk “to avoid a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Fernández trusted “to carry out this vaccination plan”, which will be “free and not compulsory”, with the aim of “vaccinating these 25 percent of the population so that they do not run any risk of contagion and of life “, and for this He called” everyone to be part of this epic of concern for the health “of the vulnerable sector of the population.

In the world

At the international level of vaccination against the coronavirus, In Russia, those at risk will start getting vaccinated next Saturday, after President Putin ordered the start of a mass vaccination campaign on Wednesday..

Putin’s order came the same day the UK approved the use of the coronavirus vaccine from US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German company BioNtech, and announced it would start vaccinating its population the next week.

For its part, the United States plans to complete the coronavirus vaccination of 100 million people, or about 40% of the country’s adults by the end of February.

Another of the countries that has announced the start of a coronavirus vaccination plan is Turkey, which will start with an inactivated experimental vaccine at the end of this month, as the country sees an increase in infections and deaths. .