BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Starting next Tuesday, the Argentine government will distribute more than 900,000 doses of bivalent vaccines against the original variant of the new coronavirus identified in China and the omicron.
In the following weeks, the authorities of the different provinces will be able to begin applying these new doses prepared by the Pfizer/BioNTech laboratory, which will be incorporated into the vaccination plan against COVID-19.
The Minister of Health, Carla Vizzott,i explained to journalists that the batch is part of a larger one that adds up to more than two million doses that arrived in the last few hours and that as of February 6, the arrival of three million is expected. of Moderna bivalent units.
The new vaccines are authorized for use in people over 12 years of age, in the case of Pfizer-BioNtech, and 6 years in the case of Moderna.
Vizzotti pointed out that in the national immunization strategy the vaccines applied up to now will coexist with the new bivariate ones.
“Anyone who was vaccinated with the monovalent vaccine knows that they are protected and that it is very important not to have wasted time receiving that dose. The vaccine that works best is the one that is applied as soon as possible and without losing opportunities,” said the official.
The bivalent vaccines that are applied in other Western countries seem to be a more effective method of stopping the pandemic. In Latin America they are already applied by Chile, Peru and Brazil, among other countries.
Since vaccination against COVID-19 began in December 2020 in Argentina -which has more than 47.3 million inhabitants-, some 41 million people started their scheme and some 37 million completed it, while more than 30 million received additional doses.
So far more than 130,000 people have died and more than 10 million have been infected with COVID-19.
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