The Aerolineas Argentinas plane that arrived on Friday afternoon brought 370,000 doses 1 of Sputnik V, bringing Argentina to a total of 5,249,000 vaccines received. The next shipment arrives on Sunday at 7 a.m., from the Netherlands, with 218,400 doses of the Oxford / AstraZéneca vaccine, provided by the Covax program of the World Health Organization. In the Casa Rosada they affirm that, in addition, on Wednesday the 31st another airline flight will come, this time from China, with 1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, part of the three million that would be completed a few days later. This Thursday a key step was completed when Anmat authorized the application of Sinopharm to people over 60, as is done in several countries, including China itself. With this flow of doses, the country is in a position to make strong progress in the vaccination plan, especially in older adults (see central note).
The Aerolineas flight is the third in the last eight days, which involved the arrival of 1,200,000 doses in that period. It is difficult to discern if this means that Sputnik arrivals are normalized – a management carried out by Minister Carla Vizzotti and the presidential adviser, Cecilia Nicolini – because the vaccine is in high demand and there is still a huge production deficit. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced that the flow and production will be higher in April because it is already scaling production in two plants that the RDIF has in Russia, but there can always be a bump. It has happened, for example, that the Gamaleya Institute, in the quality control it carries out, ordered the destruction of a consignment and that led to a pothole in shipments.
This Sunday, 218,400 doses of the Oxford / AstraZéneca vaccine will also arrive on a commercial KLM flight. The shipments of this vaccine are simpler because they do not require conservation at -20 degrees, which allows them to come in the holds of an aircraft that makes the usual Amsterdam-Buenos Aires route. Argentina bought and paid for nine million vaccines to the WHO Covax (cooperation + vaccines) program, which is intended to equalize the provision of doses between countries. The objective is to equalize, but it has been failing notoriously, among other things because the laboratories turned their back on any cooperation and equalization initiative in the distribution of vaccines. To make matters worse, in recent days, powerful countries have been putting brutal obstacles to the export of vaccines, that is, they reserve them exclusively for their citizens. The Covax program promised another 400,000 doses by April, but no one knows if it will be delivered.
What is finalized, signed the contract, and with the certainty of arrival, are the three million doses of Sinopharm. The first part, one million doses, would arrive on Wednesday the 31st. The Chief of Staff, Santiago Cafiero, took it for granted that the first game will be in Ezeiza next week and sources from the Casa Rosada confirmed to Page 12 that the first of the flights to China is being prepared. A few days later, another two flights will arrive with the remaining two million.
The other important novelty related to Sinopharm came from Anmat, which this Thursday recommended its use in older people. Immediately the Ministry of Health issued the approval and that allows the application in the age group that is most needed: from 60 to 80 years. The whole goal now is to vaccinate older adults where the virus causes 80 percent of hospitalizations and deaths.
Everything indicates that in the month of April the arrival of vaccines will be more fluid and will fit with the government’s idea of having the largest possible proportion of the population at risk vaccinated before April 30. Argentina has great expectations for the Oxford / AstraZéneca vaccines, the active element of which is manufactured in Greater Buenos Aires in Hugo Sigman’s mAbxienxe laboratory. In principle, in the second half of April 900,000 doses will arrive, out of a total of 22 million contracted. Those vaccines are going to come from the United States because there was an alteration of the original plan. mAbxienxe began to regularly ship the active elements but the Mexican laboratory, Liomont, in charge of the final part of the process and the packaging, had problems with the filters that were required and that the government of Washington blocked. Although the issue was resolved, meanwhile, AstraZéneca agreed to end production in the United States and that is why the first vaccines will come from the northern country. After that game, the rest will come from Mexico. Not only to Argentina but to all of Latin America.
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