Starting this afternoon, a vaccination plan will begin for medical personnel working on the front lines in the fight against the pandemic, said Minister Francisco Alabí without specifying further details on logistics and application for the more than 50,000 public sector workers and private ..
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.
Early in the morning, several trucks equipped with a refrigeration system to maintain the cold chain of the drug were waiting near the airstrip of the terminal to receive the transport of 20,000 vaccines that were taken to the National Center for Biology of the Ministry of Health.
“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”.
PHOTO GALLERY: 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.
It is expected that at noon, the authorities of the Ministry of Health will hold a press conference to provide more details.
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 does not represent the vaccines that will be received from the COVAX program of the World Health Organization (WHO), given that “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 government of El Salvador is counting on the “immunity of the herd” to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Ministry of Health aims to vaccinate 4.5 million Salvadorans.
This figure would represent about 72% of the Salvadoran population, according to the latest survey conducted on multiple household surveys, which estimate 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.