Peru will receive 700,000 additional doses of Sinopharm vaccine against COVID-19 this Saturday

Peru will receive a second batch of 700,000 doses of the vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm this Saturday, which will be added to the 300,000 already applied to the country’s health personnel from Tuesday, informed President Francisco Sagasti.

“The second batch of 700,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine is already on its way,” Sagasti said during a televised presentation in which he said the plane containing the vaccines had taken off from Beijing to Amsterdam, where the cargo will be transhipped. before continuing to Lima. .

The leader said that in this way Peru will receive “the doses that complement the first million agreed with Sinopharm on Saturday evening”.

The leader also pointed out that since the start of vaccination, the first dose has already been applied to some 25,000 “frontline” health personnel in the fight against the pandemic.

“We have been in less than two days, we still have a few hours and in all probability we will reach 25,000 vaccinated from the first line of defense against COVID-19 on the second day“, He added.

Sagasti assured that his administration will continue to work “tirelessly” to ensure the doses of vaccine necessary for all Peruvians, and also to refine the distribution and application system “which already works in practice”.

About, the president of the Council of Ministers, Violeta Bermúdez, declared that with the arrival of these 700,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, all health workers in the country will be vaccinated, including government officials, administrative employees, and security and cleaning personnel.

Bermúdez also indicated that 250,000 doses of the vaccine from Pfizer laboratory will arrive in the country next March and another 800,000 doses of this pharmaceutical company in April.

Peru has so far reached agreements to receive 38 million doses of Sinophar, 20 million from Pfizer, 14 million from AstraZeneca and 13.3 million from the Covax mechanism, as well as discussions with other companies such as Sinovac, Novavac, Curevac and Johnson & Johnson.

This week, Peru’s Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti assured that the second wave of COVID-19 in the world “is a tsunami”, which in his country has caused an increase of up to 300% in demand medical oxygen. take care of the sick.

“The new changes in the coronavirus make the second wave a real tsunami globally and also among us. All health systems are severely affected by the pandemic»Assured Mazzetti during an activity during which President Francisco Sagasti was vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The minister added that Peruvian specialists had calculated that the impact of a second wave would lead to a 200% increase in oxygen consumption, but this has already reached 300%.

On the other hand, the latest official figures show an additional 4,251 cases and 186 deaths from covid-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infected to 1,212,309 and 43,045 deaths since arrival. disease in the country, in March 2020..

In addition, Another 6,507 recovered were reported, which also increased to 1,124,236 the total number of people who have already been released from a medical center or have completed their home quarantine.

Thus, in Peru, there are currently 45,028 active cases of the disease, of which 14,120 remain hospitalized and 2,047 of them in intensive care units (ICU).

With EFE information

MORE ON THIS TOPIC:

WHO has approved AstraZeneca and the Oxford coronavirus vaccine for use in people over 65

Following suspension of Oxford vaccine, South Africa will administer formula not yet authorized to doctors

Peru has confirmed the presence on its territory of the Amazon variant of the coronavirus