The Venezuelan opposition has asked the UN and Michelle Bachelet to pressure Nicolás Maduro to allow entry of COVID-19 vaccines

The opposition of Venezuela which is grouped under the figure of the leader Juan Guaidó asked this Friday to the United Nations (UN) to demand that the dictator of the Caribbean country, Nicolás Maduro, open “the doors for vaccines to enter” against COVID-19 to this South American nation.

In letters addressed respectively to the secretary general of the organization and to the high commissioner for human rights, António Guterres and Michelle Bachelet, opponents urged the UN to publish “a statement against the Venezuelan regime for violating, once again, human rights, access to health and immunization“.

“We move to this proceeding by virtue of the fact that the Venezuelan regime prohibits the entry of the AstraZeneca vaccine into the countryThe opposition continued in the letter.

In mid-March, Maduro’s executive announced that will not allow entry of the AstraZeneca formula whereas the complications will be greater than the benefits derived from the use of this vaccine.

The Venezuelan regime’s veto on the AstraZeneca vaccine was reiterated after the World Health Organization announced that the doses planned for Venezuela via the Covax mechanism came from this laboratory.

“I am not an expert in the matter, but I can say that there are countries that accept it“said to EFE former MP Williams Dávila, one of the signatories of the opposition letter to the UN.

“In addition, AstraZeneca is not the only vaccine that is part of the Covax pool and we are not in any campaign to disqualify a vaccine, what we demand is that the vaccine be listed,” he said. added.

In Venezuela, a nation going through the worst crisis in its modern history, at least 171,373 people have been infected with COVID-19, of which 1720 died.

According to official data, less than 2% of the population has been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the oil nation.

The Minister of Health, Carlos alvarado, said more than 800,000 doses of Russian formulas of Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm have entered the country, and with these, they have vaccinated around 200,000 health workers as well as 50,000 volunteers under the a government plan to search for house-to-house infections.

The regime announced that Venezuela would produce the Cuban vaccine Abdala

The Venezuelan regime has confirmed that Cuban anticovid vaccine Abadala, who is on probation, It will be produced in a state laboratory in Caracas and with the formula of which he hopes to achieve mass vaccination of the population.

The Executive Vice President of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguezhe said in a statement on public television VTV that Cuban experts visited the plant of the Socialist Society for the Production of Biological Medicines (Espromed Bio), where they checked the conditions of production of the Abdala vaccine.

Rodríguez did not say when Venezuela plans to start production of the Cuban vaccine or how many doses per month it hopes to develop..

But the Minister of Health, Carlos alvaradoHe stressed that the factory, which is run by the executive, needs to undergo some adjustments before starting vaccine manufacturing.

“Here are some measures that we must take immediately to (…) as soon as possible start manufacturing vaccines in Venezuela“, He explained.

At the end of March, the Venezuelan dictator, Nicolas maduro, said your country will participate in the third phase of testing Cuban vaccine candidates Soberana 02 and Abdala, two antidotes with which he hopes to advance mass vaccination in this South American country.

But the Venezuelan National Academy of Medicine (ANM) has warned that the Sovereign 02 and Abdala formulas “these are not vaccines“Yet, but”experimental products that are just beginning to be evaluated“.

“Venezuela is suffering from a serious epidemic of COVID-19 and, instead of participating in the testing of experimental products with unknown characteristics, it should give priority to the provision of vaccines of recognized safety and efficacy in the country “ANM said in a statement last March.

In this text, academics have expressed concern about the effectiveness of these drugs, since “the results of phases 1 and 2” of the tests are not known, and therefore it is not known “whether the products are capable of inducing in humans a level and a quality of antibodies capable of conferring protection against the virus”.

(With information from EFE)

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