Nurse Mirna Esmeralda Moreno de Murgas, of the Atlacatl Medical Unit, of Social Security, received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country.
El Salvador received the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 on Wednesday, which began immunization in the afternoon of medical personnel working on the front lines of pandemic care.
The first to receive the vaccine are the staff of the Atlacatl Clinic of the Salvadoran Social Security Institute, where the government agencies have been transferred. Nurse Mirna Esmeralda Moreno de Murgas was the first in line to receive the first dose of the antidote that provides up to 76% efficacy against the coronavirus.
“We are going to vaccinate about 2,000 people a day. We are going to increase the number of people vaccinated per day, ”said President Nayib Bukele at a press conference. He added that the batch received today is part of the 2 million doses negotiated with AstraZeneca.
While officials have not provided further details on the logistics and vaccination plan, Secretary Francisco Alabí has indicated that an estimated total of 4.5 million Salvadorans are being vaccinated, but only 20,000 doses have been received today. Photo EDH / Jessica Orellana
While officials have not provided further details on the logistics and vaccination plan, Minister Francisco Alabí has indicated that an estimated 4.5 million Salvadorans will be vaccinated in total. The second group to receive the antidote are the elderly and those with chronic illnesses, the third stage includes Salvadorans between 18 and 54 years old.
The first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was a nurse from Zacamil Hospital.
The health authorities reiterate that pregnant women and minors will not be vaccinated.
Last Wednesday, a shipment of 20,000 vaccines was received at Óscar Arnulfo Romero airport, which were transferred to the National Center for Biologicals of the Ministry of Health (CENABI), located in Soyapango, in several trucks equipped with a cooling system that allows the chain to are kept cold from the drug.
Medical personnel await vaccination at the ISSS Atlacatl clinic. Photo: @SecPrensaSV
From this point on, they began to be distributed to various medical centers in the country, requiring 24 land, air and sea means of transport.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: El Salvador receives first batch of 20,000 AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 from India
“This day is historic for the country,” added Minister Alabí after receiving the plane that arrived in El Salvador in the morning. He pointed out that in CENABI there are eight refrigeration chambers that will be added to the refrigerators in each immunization center to develop all of the vaccination logistics.
Photo Jessica Orellana
“We have the largest cold chain in Latin America per capita, which is why we have the capacity to store under ultra-low freezing and low freezing modes,” he added.
Health authorities assure there is a capacity to store up to 16 million doses of the coronavirus antidote.
El Salvador received the first batch of vaccines from India’s pharmaceutical AstraZeneca on Wednesday, which will be applied to front-line workers. EDH Video / Jonathan Tobías
PHOTO GALLERY: Photos show the arrival of the first vaccines against COVID-19 in El Salvador
According to official data, El Salvador registered 58,023 infected with Covid-19 across the country and 1,767 dead until February 17. These figures do not match the data managed by the municipalities at the national level, which accounts for at least 1,879 deaths from the virus, while 3,727 died with suspicion of Covid-19 and there were 1,308 funerals diagnosed with atypical pneumonia in 257 of the 262 municipalities that make up the country. The data from the municipalities is up to the beginning of November 2020.