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Quito (AFP) – Representatives of the Ecuadorian government and the Chinese Sinovac laboratory signed an agreement on Wednesday in Quito to set up a production plant for vaccines against covid-19 and other diseases in the South American country.
“Ecuador has been prioritized for the construction” of a Sinovac laboratory for scientific research and the production of vaccines, assured the Ecuadorian Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, who signed the agreement with the operations manager for Latin America of the Chinese company, Jack Tang.
He added that the plant, which will start operating in two years, will manufacture vaccines against covid-19 and against other diseases such as chickenpox and polio, with which it aims to supply the national and regional market.
“We are going to strengthen the biological production capacity in our country,” said the official.
Sinovac will make an initial investment of 50 million dollars in the construction of its laboratory in Ecuador, according to Tang.
The production capacity and where the plant will be installed are still unknown.
Sinovac and Ecuador began negotiations in 2021 and signed the agreement after a visit by President Guillermo Lasso to Beijing in early February.
Lasso also spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, last year about the possibility of the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow manufacturing its vaccines against covid in Ecuadorian territory.
The Chinese biopharmaceutical laboratory is the main supplier of the coronavirus vaccine for Ecuador, which in 2020 was one of the first outbreaks of the pandemic in Latin America.
Currently, Ecuador registers some 823,000 cases (4,650 per 100,000 people) of coronavirus and 35,200 deaths.
The Ecuadorian government made the covid-19 vaccine mandatory for the population over three years of age, in addition to the mandatory use of face masks.
With 17.7 million inhabitants, Ecuador has completed the inoculation scheme against this virus for 13.5 million people and has provided a first reinforcement to almost 3.9 million.
© 2022 AFP
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