Minister Francisco Alabi said that there are eight cold rooms in the National Biological Center which are added to the refrigerators located in each center of application of the antidote, these will allow the best development of all vaccination logistics.
El Salvador received this Wednesday the first batch of Covid-19 vaccines from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca from India. In the morning the shipment arrived at Óscar Arnulfo Romero Airport where a government entourage was in charge of its transfer.
From the early hours several trucks equipped with refrigeration system to maintain the cold chain of the drug were waiting near the runway of the air terminal to receive the loading of 20,000 vaccines which were taken to the National Biological Center of the Ministry of Health (CENABI) in Soyapango.
The Ministry of Health brought the loading of COVID-19 vaccines to the National Biological Center in Soyapango, from where it will be distributed to country vaccination centers
“We have to thank the Serum Institute for being able to give us this vaccine, the government of India, its prime minister and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca,” Minister Francisco Alabi said. The official further reiterated that the purchase of this batch of vaccines has been “through government acquisition”.
El Salvador received this Wednesday the first batch of vaccines from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca from India. The vaccines will be applied to front-line workers. EDH / Jonathan Tobies video
Minister Francisco Alabi shows a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the batch of 20,000 that were received this Wednesday in the country. Photo Jessica OrellanaPHOTO GALLERY: In pictures the arrival of the first vaccines against COVID-19 in El Salvador
He noted that from this afternoon will begin a vaccination plan for medical staff working at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic that, according to official data, until February 17 has left 58,023 Salvadorans infected in national level and 1,767 dead.
“This day is historic for the country,” Alabi mentioned, without specifying details on the logistics and application of vaccines for health personnel, which is more than 50,000 workers in the public and private sector.
Later in a press conference at the National Center for Biology, he noted that there are eight cold rooms at CENABI that are added to the refrigerators located in each vaccination center to develop all the vaccination logistics.
“We have the largest cold chain in Latin America per capita, so we have the capacity to be able to store under the ultra-low freeze and low freeze mode,” he added.
Health authorities say they have a capacity to store up to 16 million doses of the antidote to the coronavirus.
El Salvador joins the Latin American countries that are already vaccinating their population against the coronavirus, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil.
As of 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17, authorities have not reported how many vaccines have been purchased. Photo EDH / Lissette Monterrosa
On Tuesday, President Bukele explained that this shipment is not the vaccines that will be received from the COVAX program, of the World Health Organization (WHO), since “these will come in the first week of March.”
SEE: El Salvador among the first countries to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by COVAX mechanism, what does it mean?
Bukele announced on November 24, 2020 that the Salvadoran government and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have reached an agreement for the supply of 2 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The Ministry of Health aims to vaccinate 4.5 million Salvadorans. The second group within the vaccination plan are older adults and people with chronic illnesses.
4.2% would represent approximately 72% of the Salvadoran population, according to the latest Multipurpose Household Survey, which estimates that El Salvador is inhabited by 6,700,000 people.
The government reported via Twitter account that the vaccines have been purchased, without giving details of the cost. Photo / Goats
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Despite data the government handles on Covid-19 cases in the country, mayoral figures indicate at least 1,879 died of the virus, while 3,727 died with suspicion of covid-19 and 1,308 were given. burials with a diagnosis of atypical pneumonia in 257 municipalities out of the 262 that make up the country until early November 2020.