Coronavirus vaccines: the government has confirmed …

The government has confirmed that a second series of doses of Sputnik V vaccine will arrive in Argentina in the middle of the month, while the vaccination operation continues, with at least 70 thousand people already vaccinated, and the steps to complete the purchase of one million Sinopharm vaccines, of Chinese origin, who would also begin to be received in the coming weeks. “Today we will reach 70,000 applied vaccines. Argentina, of the whole region, is the country that has vaccinated the most. But it is still missing; you must continue to take care of yourself. Today, the risks of contagion are neglected ”, declared the chief of staff, Santiago Cafiero, during a press conference which he shared with the Minister of Health, Ginés González García, at the headquarters of the Malbrán Institute.

As with the first series of vaccines, an Aerolineas Argentinas plane will depart for Russia possibly during the next week to “seek additional doses of the first application” of the Sputnik V vaccine, as confirmed by the Minister of Health. In the government, it is assumed that the flight will leave for Moscow on Thursday, January 14 at 8:35 a.m. and return on the 15th at midnight with the cargo. “We have purchased a total of 20 million of this vaccine, so the transfer of vaccines to Argentina will start to be almost incessant,” said González García.

The minister added that at the end of March “a very large amount of the vaccine that is manufactured here” will be added to these doses from Russia, in reference to that developed by the pharmaceutical company. AstraZeneca. He also reported on the procedures for the vaccine Sinopharm: “Today, we are negotiating with China a million doses for January,” he explained. In addition, he assured that “negotiations are continuing” with other suppliers and reiterated that “a new proposal had been made for Pfizer to see if they accept “.

Argentina also has open negotiations “with Brazil, which produces another of the Chinese development vaccines,” González García said. This is the vaccine against covid-19 Coronavac, from the Chinese Sinovac laboratory, developed locally in Brazil by the Butantan Institute, which, located in the state of São Paulo, is the main supplier of vaccines to the neighboring country and has the largest production of influenza vaccines in the southern hemisphere. The Coronavac vaccine has shown an effectiveness of 78% among 12,400 Brazilian volunteers and the registration and authorization process has already started with the National Agency for Health Surveillance (Anvisa), equivalent to the local Anmat. The head of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas, said that “the current negotiation with Argentina is the most advanced of all in this process of possible exports”, and declared that it was currently in “phase of contractual negotiation to provide the first doses “. .

The national government’s strategy for dealing with the pandemic aims to simultaneously open different negotiations for the search for vaccines to deal with the coronavirus. “We want to have all the suppliers”, explained and underlined the Minister González García: “There is a tragedy in the world today because there are no vaccines, and the vaccines that exist are difficult to obtain. to work; therefore, we want to continue to develop vaccines and achieve a form of application that allows the massiveness that must have to achieve immunity quickly. In this context, the minister warned that the company “had stopped paying attention” and explained that “Until the vaccine works, for which a few months ago,” distance and care will be “fundamental”.

To this end, the Government has decided to limit night traffic throughout the country, while the vaccination campaign continues in the 24 provinces, starting with the 300,000 doses of Sputnik V brought from Moscow on December 24. .