Carla Vizzotti announced what will happen to those waiting for the second dose of the vaccine

After the announcement of the new confinement which will be in effect until May 30 across the country to stop the wave of coronavirus infections, Health Minister Carla Vizzotti has announced what will happen to those waiting for the second dose of the vaccine.

“We hope that the first part of the vaccines Astrazeneca of the United States “, anticipated the official in dialogue with Urban radio. He explained that these doses are those of the “bilateral contract” with the laboratory for 22 million doses.

With these vaccines, he explained that “both strategies will be worked out.” On the one hand, he said that “the calendars of those who complete three months” of the first dose will be completed and clarified that “those who have already encountered” this period “and miss a week or two, this is not a problem, it is not that the vaccine expires but it is an interval and that they will have priority “.

Argentina is part of the production process because it produces the active ingredient. Until now, AstraZeneca had manufactured millions of doses in our country and sent them to Mexico for the packaging process, but still no finished vaccine shipments are returned.

According to the contract signed in November, Argentina was to receive 2,382,000 vaccines in March and 4,040,000 in April. To this were added, as originally agreed, 4,040,000 whose date in the calendar is the end of May; 3,451,000 from June; and 8,518,000 others until July 31. In total, there are 22,431,000 doses at a total cost of $ 89.6 million, as shown Bugle end of April.

Regarding the Sputnik V, Vizzotti said they expect to start receiving the second component next week, even though the expected date is May 20.

In this sense, he admitted that “it is more difficult to achieve because of the production and because Russia is applying it”, and added that between next Sunday and Tuesday planes with the first doses will arrive and ” we are awaiting news of the second “.

“Whoever received the first dose of all vaccines will complete the schedule. This is the strategy and it has not changed, ”he said.

President Alberto Fernández confirmed on Thursday the arrival of a new million Sputnik V vaccines against the coronavirus. He did so through the national channel, announcing a strong shutdown of activities to contain the advance of the second wave of the pandemic.

Vizzotti also insisted that “the negotiations with Pfizer have never ceased to live”, and clarified: “We continue to exchange possibilities, we hope to be able to reach an agreement as soon as possible”.

In any case, he explained that “the vaccine does not stop transmission; it reduces hospitalizations and mortality ”.

Argentina has received so far 12,698,250 vaccines. Of this total, 6,535,850 came from Sputnik V (5,475,690 from the first component and 1,060,160 from the second component); 4,000,000 from Sinopharm; 580,000 from Covishield / AstraZeneca; and 1,082,400 from AstraZeneca which were received through the COVAX mechanism of the World Health Organization.

New containment

Regarding the measures announced this Thursday by President Alberto Fernández, Vizzotti estimated that “the situation is critical and the most worrying since the start of the pandemic“.

He explained that the situation has worsened in recent weeks because “the new variants (of the virus) are more transmissible and deadly and because of the amount of movement of people in a context of high viral transmission”.

In addition, in dialogue with Radio with you, He predicted that “it will be difficult months” because “in winter, the transmission of the respiratory virus increases”.