The total number of doses that will be delivered to the country and from which laboratory they come is not known.
The first batch of vaccines against Covid-19 will be brought to El Salvador in late January or mid-February at the latest, as part of the World Health Organization (WHO) donation.
Kate O’Brien, WHO’s director of immunization, announced yesterday that the vaccination donation is part of the initiative of the Global Access Fund for Covid-19 Vaccines (Covax, for the acronym). $ 7 billion is being invested in this program.
The director of Immunization said in a virtual conversation with the media on Thursday that “we only need about $ 7,000 million to deliver enough vaccines to those countries by the end of 2021 (benefited). The initiative has already raised about 6,000 million. 7,000 million dollars ”.
While the total number of vaccines that will come in this first batch is unknown, El Salvador is one of 92 beneficiary countries due to the difficult economic situation. Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic are some of the region’s favorite states.
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“We will probably start delivering those vaccines at the end of January and if not, certainly early February and mid-February, so that the countries in Africa and South Asia and other countries in the world of these 92 have less capacity to produce for vaccines. pay, they will be vaccinated and spread with high-income countries at the same time, ”the WHO official said during a conversation on digital platforms.
The goal of the WHO Covax Mechanism is to obtain vaccines for 20% of the population in each participating country by the end of this year. 92% of the poorest countries are covered by their purchasing costs.
As said by O’Brien, the vaccine that would be distributed is the Pzifer BioNTech, with which the government of El Salvador has not officially agreed, but with the British-Swedish AstraZeneca. However, representatives of the Medical College have indicated that Bukele’s administration has already advanced negotiations with Pfizer BioNTech.
“We’ve already reviewed the data from the first to complete the review, which is the Pfizer vaccine, and the WHO has so effectively issued a so-called emergency list, which means it confirms that we have the data and that the data meet the standards that they set the highest standards set for the worldwide use of these vaccines, ”said O’Brien.
For now, AstraZeneca is the only vaccine to have already been approved by the National Directorate of Medicines for import and distribution in El Salvador, an approval made public on December 30.
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This WHO donation will help El Salvador receive millions of doses of the vaccine, but not enough, as the government has said it plans to vaccinate 4.5 million people.
In late December last year, the Legislative Assembly, within the budget for 2021, approved by Decree 389 a $ 50 million loan to the Inter-American Development Bank for the purchase of vaccines for COVID-19.
Health Minister Francisco Alabí has previously stated that the government is aiming for 9 million doses, aiming to vaccinate 4.5 million people in the country. The priority with this vaccination would be for frontline personnel (medical professionals, nurses, soldiers, firefighters, etc.), people over 60 years old, and those with chronic illnesses (diabetes, hypertension, etc.) who are more susceptible to COVID-19 to get.
To date, the country reports 48,255 cases of people infected with Covid-19. Of these, according to official information, 1,398 have died and 42,902 have been recovered.