Argentina, with the world’s first covid vaccination rates | All the data from this week’s vaccination schedule

Argentina is starting to close the gap created by the lack of Sputnik V, dose 2, with a vaccination rate of more than 200,000 people per day, only in the province of Buenos Aires and the city of Buenos Aires. The vaccination of those who received the first dose in April and early May is being completed, so the distance between doses gradually decreases from 100 to 75 days. In the district of Buenos Aires, the second dose is even applied to people who received the first 60 days, taking into account previous illnesses. In parallel, this Wednesday the first flight of a series of ten leaves for China. The schedule is being delayed because contagions of the Delta variant have appeared at the Asian giant and there are new restrictions on air traffic. 8 million doses are expected which, in large part, will be used to apply the second component to those who received the first of the same vaccine. Also this week, the Gamaleya Institute’s authorization of 800,000 doses of Sputnik V, component 2, completed in Argentina is awaited. Friday, from Moscow, 150,000 of these 800,000 received the green light and this Monday, nearly 100,000 more, that is to say that there are already more vaccines available to apply.

As announced by the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, August is the month in which it is expected to complete the vaccination of 60 percent of all over 50s in the country. The process is moving fast and in both districts the gap caused by Russia’s delay in producing second doses is starting to close.

• In the province of Buenos Aires, 180,000 teams are sent every day and, in addition, the vaccination centers continue to receive those who present spontaneously, people who have never registered and have not received the dose 1. In total, some 190 thousand people they are vaccinated daily.
• The rate of dose 2 is very different. Vaccination of people who received Dose 1 of Sputnik V in May, 90 days ago, is now complete, but there is still April.
• In CABA, the second component is provided to people who received the first one from Sputnik V between 75 and 100 days ago. In other words, little by little, the vaccination of the porteños who received dose 1 in April and May is coming to an end.

How immunization schedules are completed

In order to overcome the delays, three methods were used: the combination of vaccines; the doses that came from Moscow; and the doses – for the moment few in number – completed by the Richmond Laboratory in Argentina. TO this week, the Gamaleya Institute would release a total of 800,000 more doses 2, part of which – 150,000 – were authorized last Friday and another 98,000 this Monday, according to the proprietary information that Page / 12 has been able to collect. In total, Richmond has already delivered nearly 400,000 doses 2.

All this explains why Argentina has already applied 10,200,000 doses 2 and that it should have no difficulty in reaching the target of 60% of those over 50 with a full vaccination. Measures to restrict the entry of people from abroad have so far ensured that the Delta variant has not had a significant impact and that is why the number of infections continues to decline. This last data is of magnitude: few countries have succeeded in reducing cases in the middle of winter, the traditional season for respiratory viruses like covid.

How the covid vaccination continues this week

• AstraZeneca Dose 2 (within 60 days of the first); 2 doses of Sinopharm (just over 21 days), the modern North American vaccine, used as the second component, and 2 doses of Sputnik (said between 75 and 100 days) arrived from Moscow last week. The 248,000 doses authorized by Gamaleya are then added to the list, although the Ministry of Health must distribute them. All of these vaccines are intended to supplement immunization schedules.
• Although 80% of people over 18 have already been immunized with at least one dose, there are still people who receive Dose 1, both Sinopharm and AstraZeneca and even Sputnik V component 1, of which nearly one million doses have been processed at the Richmond laboratory.
• Adolescents aged 12 to 17, with previous illnesses, with the Moderna vaccine.

Flights to China in search of Sinopharm vaccines

This Wednesday, the first of Aerolineas Argentinas flights in August leaves for Beijing, which will bring a total of 8 million doses of Sinopharm. A large part of these vaccines will be used for second doses, that is to say to supplement the 8 million which were applied in July. Flights are being delayed as new infections have emerged in China and there are restrictions on the arrival of planes and additional precautionary measures as Beijing authorities consider the infections to come from abroad. Flights are rescheduled, but the idea is that shipments can be completed in three weeks.

New Astra-Zeneca games

Regarding the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines – already authorized as a second dose of Sputnik – new deliveries are expected. UK lab pledged 3,500,000 doses in August and so far only 530,000 have arrived from Albuquerque, where the production started in Argentina by the mAbxience Laboratory, of the Insud Group, is completed.

Although the opposition has focused on Spuntik, the delays affect all vaccines. The alliance of non-governmental organizations known as Oxfam maintains that laboratories Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson favor rich countries and they sold them no less than 90% of their production, leaving them with a profit margin of $ 41 billion. According to Oxfam’s calculations, the cost of the vaccines is around US $ 1.20 and the labs have sold them at 24 times their production cost. And this concentration of vaccines in rich countries makes the delays in supplying other nations repeated. Even like that, Argentina already has the same number of vaccinated with a single dose as the United States and fast forward with the application of the second component.