With the imminent arrival of vaccines from India, the vaccination of people over 70 years old will begin – Telam

The executive considers it ready to start the first phase

With the arrival of a new batch of vaccines against Covid-19 scheduled for the beginning of next week – in this case from India – the government will have a stock of nearly a million dosesTherefore, it is expected that in the coming days, provinces will begin to vaccinate people over 70 years of age.

The lot in question consists of 580,000 doses of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the Swedish-British company AstraZeneca, although in this case produced by the Serum Institute of India under the name Covishield, on the basis of a technology transfer agreement.

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 of Sputnik V which arrived on Friday on Aerolneas Argentinas’ fourth special flight to Russia.

With this provision of vaccines, to which are added those that will arrive in the rest of February and March, the executive considers that it is already in a position to start the first “ massive ” phase of vaccination“

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

This means that now is the time to start vaccinating the main risk group against the 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, since each jurisdiction has the manner of using the doses it receives from the Ministry of Health.

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

Meanwhile, Health Minister Gins Gonzlez García noted on Friday that with the 400,000 doses of Sputnik plus “the vaccines arriving early next week from India” will finish vaccinating “all workers in health “and” will begin to vaccinate people over 70 years, “he detailed.

According to PAMI figures, around 5,000 affiliates in Buenos Aires have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V.

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

In the case of the Buenos Aires district, according to PAMI figures, around 5,000 affiliates have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V; the vast majority are over retirement age (65) and many are even over 70 years old.

They are residents in 50 geritricos 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 rest of February and throughout March to have a sustained supply of vaccines from different sources.

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

Following the planned first batch of 580,000 doses of Covishield, the executive hopes that a few weeks later they 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.

Regarding this vaccine, the chief of staff, Santiago Cafiero, said that the government expects for next week “a delivery of vaccines from India from Oxford-AstraZeneca”.

“We are very excited to be able to receive them in a timely manner,” he said in radio statements.

In parallel, and according to official forecasts, we will also begin in March to receive periodic shipments of the vaccine created by AstraZeneca that the Argentinian pharmaceutical company mAbxience (produces the active substance) and the Mexican laboratory Liomont (packages and distributes) produce for Latin America.

It is a collaboration and joint development agreement which, since its inception, has been sponsored by the governments of both countries.

Regular shipments of the vaccine created by AstraZeneca will also begin in March.

At the end of February, President Alberto Fernández plans to visit Mexico to attend the commemoration of 200 years of independence.

The visit, which qualified sources of the presidency gave to Tlam as absolutely confirmed, responds to a special invitation from Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador and has no relation to the agreement of the private companies of the two countries for the production of vaccines. .

The vaccine supply the government expects for the next 45 days, however, includes more shipments from Sputnik.

It is likely that the new articles will not come from Russia but from India, since the laboratory Hetero Biopharma of this country has entered into an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Gamaleya Center to produce Sputnik on the Indian territory.

Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV vaccine has the particularity of not requiring refrigeration below 0 degrees“

Finally, the executive discovers that the final details will be completed in a short time for the commercial contract with the Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm to be signed and therefore, finally, the supply of one million vaccines defined as BBIBP -CorV between the scientific community. .

The agreement with Sinopharm, and to some extent also with the Chinese state, is “very advanced” but not yet closed.sources who are following the negotiations in detail told Tlam.

One of the pending procedures is the approval of emergency use by Antat, as has been done with the Sputnik vaccine.

Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV vaccine has the particularity of not requiring refrigeration below 0 degreesTherefore, its producers argue that it has logistical advantages.

On the other hand, the two sides agreed on the unit price, as the president himself revealed a week ago, in his interview with the newspaper Pgina 12: “I want to clarify that they improved the price for us and we were left at $ 20 each dose,” he said then.

Sinopharm vaccine has an efficiency of 79%, according to the information provided by the laboratory which produces it.

Other scientific developments against the coronavirus originating in China, such as CoronaVac created by the private laboratory Sinovac and which is also produced in Brazil, have shown, on the contrary, an efficiency of 50.38%.

In South America, the CoronaVac vaccine is being used for the ongoing vaccination campaign in Chile.