Argentina receives the first shipment of the 20 million doses purchased from Moderna

After much controversy, and a recently signed agreement in July of this year, The country will receive the first shipment of vaccines against the coronavirus from the North American laboratory Moderna. These are 2,643,340 doses of the more than 20 million purchased from the firm.

The shipment is scheduled to land this morning on Latam Cargo flight UC1103. According to the Government, it will allow the initiation and completion of schemes as well as advance in the reinforcement dose application strategy, both in adolescents and adults.

The news of the shipment comes at a time when the country is experiencing strong growth in cases, just before the end of the year festivities and before the summer season. The Government is betting on tourism to boost the sector after the effects of the pandemic.

According to the announcement, the first doses were to arrive in the first quarter of 2022, which implies an advance with respect to the expected time.

The agreement was reached after the modifications made to the Vaccine Law 27,573, through the Last Decree of Necessity and Urgency (DNU) presidential. This modification also made it possible to receive a donation of vaccines from the United States government; that by its regulationArgentina had been left out in the first stage of this year.

By then, the Government had been involved in criticism from the opposition for having delayed an agreement with North American firms for the provision of Covid-19 vaccines, especially with the firm Pfizer. And an aspect that had begun to grow then that the vaccines available at that time in the country could not be applied to minors, an attribute that the immunizers manufactured in the United States did meet.

Moderna’s vaccine “has shown an efficacy of over 90%, with an adequate safety profile, which explains its emergency authorization for use in people 18 years of age and older by regulatory agencies in more than 50 countries”, the ministry had highlighted in its communication of the agreement.

In addition, a new shipment with another 1,085,200 doses of AstraZeneca will arrive today around 9:45 p.m. on flight AM0030 of the Aeromexico company. In this way, in just one day the country will incorporate 3,728,540 vaccines to continue responding to the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

With these shipments, the country will have thus received 99,700,395 units since the beginning of the Strategic Vaccination Plan against COVID-19 that the national Government deploys throughout the territory. Of this total, 28,546,900 doses correspond to AstraZeneca (580,000 from Covishield; 1,944,000 received by the COVAX mechanism; 22,400,000 from AstraZeneca and Oxford whose active ingredient was produced in Argentina; 2,202,800 donated by Spain, and 549,600 for Canada).

14,683,210 doses correspond to Sputnik V (10,125,655 of component 1, and 4,557,555 of component 2), and 6,296,125 to Sputnik V produced in Argentina by the Richmond laboratory (1,634,875 of the first component, and 4,661 .250 of the second). Meanwhile, 31,672,800 correspond to Sinopharm (30,000,000 from the bilateral contract and 1,672,800 received through the COVAX mechanism); 6,143,340 to Moderna (3,500,000 doses from the donation from the United States and 2,643,340 from the bilateral contract), 1,704,000 to CanSino and 10,654,020 to Pfizer.

According to the Public Vaccination Monitor, to date 90,881,094 doses have been distributed throughout the territory, while applications total 74,049,613. In turn, 37,730,569 people started their scheme and 32,034,608 completed it, while 2,257,905 people received additional doses and 2,026,531 received booster doses.

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