Minister Francisco Alabí said there are eight cold rooms in the National Biological Center that are added to the refrigerators located in each antidote application center, allowing for the best development of all vaccination logistics.
El Salvador on Wednesday received the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals in India. In the morning, the transport arrived at Óscar Arnulfo Romero Airport, where a government delegation was handling its transfer.
From the first hours, several trucks equipped with a refrigeration system to maintain the cold chain of the drug waited near the runway of the air terminal to receive the transport of 20,000 vaccines that were taken to the National Biology Center of the Ministry of Health (CENABI) in Soyapango.
The Ministry of Health has transported COVID-19 vaccines to the National Center for Biologists in Soyapango, from where it will be distributed to vaccination centers in the country
“We must thank the Serum Institute for managing to provide us with this vaccine, the Government of India, its Prime Minister and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca,” said Minister Francisco Alabí. The official also reiterated that the purchase of this batch of vaccines was “through the purchase of the government”.
El Salvador received on Wednesday the first batch of vaccines from the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company in India, which will be applied to front-line workers. Video EDH / Jonathan Tobías
Minister Francisco Alabí shows a dose of AstraZeneca vaccine from the batch of 20,000 that were received in the country on Wednesday. Photo Jessica Orellana PHOTO GALLERIES: In pictures the arrival of the first vaccines against COVID-19 in El Salvador
He stressed that starting this afternoon, a vaccination plan will begin for medical personnel working on the front line in the fight against the pandemic, which, according to official data, left 58,023 Salvadorans infected nationwide by February 17 and 1,767 dead.
“This day is historic for the country,” Alabí said, without specifying details on the logistics and application of vaccines for health workers, who represent more than 50,000 public and private sector workers.
Later, in a press conference at the National Biological Center, he pointed out that there are eight cold rooms in CENABI that are added to the refrigerators located in each vaccination center to develop all vaccination logistics.
“We have the largest cold chain in Latin America per capita, which is why we have the ability to store in ultra low freezing and low freezing modes,” he added.
Health authorities say there is a capacity to store up to 16 million doses of coronavirus antidote.
El Salvador joins Latin American countries that are already vaccinating their population against coronavirus, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
Until 11:30 on Wednesday, February 17, the authorities did not report how many vaccines were purchased. Photographs EDH / Lissette Monterrosa
On Tuesday, President Bukele explained that this transport is not the vaccines that will be received from the COVAX program of the World Health Organization (WHO), because “they will come in the first week of March”.
SEE: El Salvador among the first countries to receive the COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX mechanism, what does it mean?
Bukele announced on November 24, 2020 that the Salvadoran government and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have reached an agreement to supply 2 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19.
The Ministry of Health aims to vaccinate 4.5 million Salvadorans. The second group in the vaccination plan is the elderly and the chronically ill.
4.2% would represent about 72% of the Salvadoran population, according to the latest survey of multi-purpose homes, which estimates that El Salvador is inhabited by 6.7 million people.
The government reported via a Twitter account that the vaccines had been purchased without providing details about the cost. Photography / Goats
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Despite government data on Covid-19 cases in the country, city hall figures indicate at least 1,879 deaths from the virus, while 3,727 died on suspicion of covid-19 and 1,308 burials diagnosed with atypical pneumonia in 257 of the 262 municipalities that make up the country by the beginning of November 2020.