The 580,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine are already heading to Argentina

“The vaccines made in India are on their way to Argentina. They are expected to arrive in Buenos Aires early in the morning of February 17”, Bhatia confirmed on her Twitter account.

With the arrival of a new batch of vaccines against Covid-19, the government will have a stock of nearly a million dosesTherefore, provinces are expected to start vaccinating people over 70 years old in the coming days.

The Serum Institute’s Covishield vaccines, whose full scientific name is Covishield / ChAdOx1nCoV-19 Corona Virus Vaccine-Recombinant, will be added to the 400,000 units of the first component Sputnik V which arrived on Friday on Aerolineas Argentinas’ fourth special flight to Russia .

With this provision of vaccines, in addition to those that the Ministry of Health hopes to receive in the rest of February and throughout March, the executive considers that it is already in a position to start the first “massive” phase of vaccination.

This means that the time has come to start immunizing the main group at risk of a pandemic (and one of the most numerous in terms of population): the over 70s.

However, the application of vaccines to members of each risk group corresponds to the provincial states and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, as each jurisdiction determines how to use the doses it receives from the Ministry of Health.

Until now, the criteria used by the Nation to redistribute vaccines between the 23 provinces and CABA were proportional to the number of health workers and health facilities.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Ginés González García noted that with the 400,000 doses of Sputnik plus “the vaccines arriving early next week from India” will end up vaccinating “all health workers. “and” people over 70 will be vaccinated, “he explained.

Although widespread and mass vaccination of people over 70 has not yet started, some jurisdictions – for example, the province of Buenos Aires – have asked national organizations such as PAMI to carry out vaccination operations in long-stay residences (geriatric) for retired members of social work.

In the case of the Buenos Aires district, according to PAMI figures, around 3,000 members have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V; the vast majority are over retirement age (65) and many are even over 70.

They reside in 50 nursing homes corresponding to the borrowing companies of the Social Institute for retirees and retirees.

This experience, still ongoing, can be read as a first step in what will happen next across the country and on a much larger scale.

Indeed, The “ massive ” vaccination of the population over 70 will begin this week as the government plans for the remainder of February and throughout March to have a sustained supply of vaccines. of different origins.

After the planned first batch of 580,000 doses of Covishield, the executive is convinced that a few weeks later he will receive a second batch of the same vaccine from India.

The Department of Health approved the use of Covishield last Tuesday, with the publication in the Official Journal of resolution 627/2021.