After months and months in which the opposition falsely warned that Argentines vaccinated with Sputnik V could not even leave the country, Spain issued a resolution this week that allows Argentines vaccinated with Sputnik V or any other vaccine and even those who are not vaccinated enter to your territory with a simple affidavit. The Order of the Ministry of the Interior 1159/2021 begins to govern from next Saturday.
Specifically, Argentina is no longer among the countries with restrictions on non-essential travel, which are tourism. The European Union had already recommended the free entry of Argentines, but the final decision had to be made by each country of the old continent. The step taken by Spain is key because the rest of the European nations will surely follow. What is recognized is the very low level of contagion that exists in Argentina, which is why it is no longer a danger that someone from these beaches enters Spanish territory.
The Ministry of Health of the Nation had been fighting for a more than reasonable criterion: that all countries have to recognize the vaccination of others, admitting as valid the criteria of the regulatory body of the country of origin. In the Argentine case, the Anmat. In other words, if the Anmat considered the efficacy of any vaccine -Sputnik, Sinopharm, Oxford / AstraZeneca or whatever- to be proven, the recipient country should not question that approval.
In truth, the European Union and now Spain jumped over that strategy: they took into account that there are few infections and with that they established that vaccinated Argentines can travel to Spain or not. “If there are few infections, they will not infect us,” is the reasoning.
Argentina had been decreasing the number of confirmed cases and now that decline has stalled due to the appearance of the Delta variant. Still, there are about 1,100 infections per day and 21 deaths, an average of last week. In June of this year, the country had 600 deaths per day and 40,000 infections. The spectacular decrease is due, essentially, to the fabulous vaccination campaign, with levels above 90 percent in older adults.
With these data in view and taking into account that Spain is one of the countries with the highest percentage of vaccinated, the entry of Argentines and also Chileans, Uruguayans and Colombians was opened, regardless of the vaccine they received. As is known, despite the fuss with Pfizer, the enormous proportion in those countries was vaccinated with Chinese vaccines and in the Argentine case with Russian, Chinese and Oxford / AstraZeneca with the active part manufactured in the Garín laboratory, mAbxience.
What to do to enter Spain
The procedure is that whoever wants to go to Spain must fill out a form in which they do not ask if one is vaccinated or not and at the end of the process a QR code is granted that must be presented when checking-in and when entering Spain.
The opening of resolution 1159/2021 is the first step towards unrestricted access to other European countries. For now, there is still a certain ban in the United States for those who received Sputnik V, something that can only be explained by the geopolitical war. It is difficult to understand that a few months ago, when cases in Argentina were multiplying, it was possible to enter the United States and get vaccinated there. But now, for the moment, the one with Sputnik V does not enter.
On the horizon is the approval process for the Russian vaccine by the World Health Organization (WHO). There are those who say that the Gamaleya Institute is reluctant to submit documentation, denying the WHO some authority. But on the other hand, it seems unreasonable that a vaccine that immunizes millions and millions of people in almost 80 countries is not approved, with extremely high levels of efficacy and almost no side effects.
– .
