The first vaccines that El Salvador will receive are those from AstraZeneca. The government said it would start vaccinating front-line staff on Wednesday.
President Nayib Bukele announced on Tuesday night that the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive in El Salvador this Wednesday, February 17 and that health personnel will be the first to be vaccinated.
The vaccines that El Salvador will receive are those from the Astrazeneca batch acquired by the Government, not those that the country is expected to receive through the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX mechanism. This donation will come in the first week of March, according to the president.
“Tomorrow morning, an @Iberia plane carries the first batch of vaccines against @ COVID19 from @AstraZeneca, from India. Tomorrow the vaccination with our front-line staff begins. This will take a few days, vaccinating thousands of daily health workers, ”Bukele posted on his Twitter account.
SEE: El Salvador among the first countries to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by COVAX mechanism, what does it mean?
The Minister of Health, Francisco Alabi, will hold a conference this Wednesday at 10:00 am at the International Airport to report on the first batch of vaccines to be received.
Until Tuesday afternoon, the Government had not given an exact date for receiving the first vaccinations, nor for the start of the vaccination plan. However, they began to place signs to identify vaccination centers, such is the case of the National Hospital of San Francisco Gotera, Morazán.
Staff at Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in Sant Miquel unofficially told El Diari d’Avui that Minister Alabi is expected to visit the site this Wednesday to monitor the sector where vaccines will be applied in the said medical center, which would be in the outpatient area, where the obstetric center previously operated.
The Ministry of Health has not yet announced what vaccination plan will be implemented in the coming days, nor has it detailed the places where the first stage of immunization will begin.
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What the Government did announce in the first days of January ands the construction of 156 vaccination booths or modules, at a cost of $ 5 million, according to data provided by the Minister of Health.
Each cabin will have an estimated cost of $ 32,000, the minister said, which was labeled “wasteful” and “unnecessary spending” by public health experts and deputies.
The Astrazeneca vaccine that El Salvador will receive requires the normal temperature of a refrigerator.
The announcement of the arrival of the vaccines is given two weeks before the municipal and legislative elections, and among the constant requests from different sectors for the Government to inform the logistics that will be implemented.