The first vaccines that El Salvador will receive are those from AstraZeneca. The government has assured that vaccination of frontline personnel will begin on Wednesday.
President Nayib Bukele announced on Tuesday evening that the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive in El Salvador on Wednesday, February 17, and that the medical staff will be the first to be vaccinated.
The vaccines that El Salvador will receive are those of the Astrazeneca group that the Government has purchased, not those that the country expects to receive through the COVAX mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO). This donation will come in the first week of March, according to the president.
“Tomorrow morning, an @Iberia plane brings the first batch of # COVID19 vaccines from @AstraZeneca, India. Vaccination begins tomorrow with our front-line staff. It will take several days, vaccinating thousands of health workers every day, “Bukele posted on his Twitter account.
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The Minister of Health, Francisco Alabí, will hold a conference this Wednesday at 10:00 at the International Airport to report the first batch of vaccines to be received.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Government did not give an exact date for receiving the first vaccines or for starting the vaccination plan. However, they have begun to place signs to identify vaccination centers, such as the National Hospital in San Francisco Gotera, Morazán.
Staff at San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Miguel unofficially told El Diario de Hoy that Minister Alabí is expected to visit the site on Wednesday to monitor the vaccine sector at the medical center. the outpatient area, where the obstetric center previously operated.
The Ministry of Health has not yet announced the vaccination plan that will be carried out in the coming days, nor has it detailed the places where the first stage of immunization will begin.
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What the Government announced in the first days of January andto build 156 vaccination booths or modules at a cost of $ 5 million, according to data provided by the Minister of Health.
Each cabin will cost an estimated $ 32,000, the minister said, labeling it as “waste” and “unnecessary spending” by public health experts and MPs.
The Astrazeneca vaccine that El Salvador will receive requires the normal temperature of a refrigerator.
The announcement of the arrival of the vaccines is given two weeks before the municipal and legislative elections and between the constant requests from different sectors for the Government to inform the logistics that will be implemented.