:quality(90)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/lanacionpy/ATHALOTUFJGELEQDHR2MBGIXVE.jpg "Sinopharm terminated contract for “inexplicable reasons”")
Immunization against COVID-19 will cost the country a total of US $ 93,254,210, in exchange for 8,279,800 doses that will protect a target population of 4,139,900 Paraguayans against the virus. Until today, the Government paid US $ 33,431,296 and owes US $ 66,828,594. In return, only 234,000 doses were received (not including the batch received yesterday); in addition to 223,000 doses received as donations.
These data come from a report provided by Senator Amado Florentín, from the Senate Expenditure Control Committee, on anti-COVIOD-19 vaccines. These days, several citizens requested reports from the Ministry of Health, but were answered with the denial of information by the Legal Directorate, alleging the confidentiality of contracts.
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In Florentín’s report, the numbers of the questioned Covax mechanism stand out, through which 4,279,800 doses were acquired, and so far 170,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been received, through two deliveries, 36,000, on February 26, and 134,000, on April 25.
US $ 9,981,296 has been paid for Covax, which really represents only the payment for the access premium, which is not recoverable according to the participation agreement to the system represented locally by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); and that meant the departure of Luis Escoto in the face of criticism for the delays.
Said premium reached US $ 6,847,680, paid on October 1, 2020. To this amount is added a financial guarantee of US $ 2,975,616, paid on October 25; as well as US $ 158,000 for shipping costs, paid on February 26.
Through Covax, Paraguay has access to vaccines from the AstraZeneca laboratory, for a total cost of US $ 38,304,210. The balance to be paid is US $ 35,328,594. The cost per dose is US $ 9.
1,000,000 Sputnik V vaccines were purchased through the Russian Direct Investment Fund for US $ 9,950,000. This amount was paid in two payments, on February 4 and 23. So far 64,000 doses have arrived in three batches: 4,000, on February 18; 20,000, on April 9, and 40,000, on May 15. With the Russian vaccines there is no outstanding debt. The cost per dose is US $ 10.
In the case of the Indian vaccines Covaxin, through the company Madison Biotech Pte, Ltd. and the Indian laboratory Bharat Biotech, 2,000,000 were acquired, after an advance of US $ 6,000,000 paid on April 26. A month later, no dose has yet arrived due to the crisis in India. Funds from Taiwan were used for these vaccines
The total cost for the Covaxin vaccines is US $ 30,000,000; the balance to be paid is US $ 24,000,000. The cost per dose is US $ 15.
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This past Monday, 250,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine were received from the United Arab Emirates, which are the first batch of 1,000,000 doses acquired through the company G42 Medications Trading LLC.
On May 3, an advance of US $ 7,500,000 was paid, half of the total cost of US $ 15,000,000; so the debt is US $ 7,500,000. The cost per dose is US $ 15.
The senator’s report includes data on the donations received. 20,000 CoronaVac vaccines were shipped from Chile on March 6. On March 12, 3,000 Sinopharm vaccines arrived from the United Arab Emirates. The government of India shipped 200,000 Covaxin vaccines, in two shipments, on March 29 and April 25. They total 223,000 doses received. 400,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine remain pending, which will be sent by Qatar as a donation.
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