To date, a total of 41,833,930 doses of anticovid vaccine have arrived in Argentina. | Photo: Télam

Buenos Aires, July 27 (RHC)-- Argentina's Ministry of Health reports that a flight arrived in Buenos Aires from Miami, with more than 800,500 vaccines from AstraZeneca.  The new shipment aims to strengthen the anti-COVID-19 immunization plan in the South American nation.

With this shipment, a total of 41,833,930 vaccine doses have arrived in Argentina since the beginning of the immunization program.  According to official sources, 16,127,200 of these doses have arrived during the month of July. 

In the last three weeks, another 17 flights have landed in Argentina, adding up to 1,744,000 of Sputnik V (1,141,000 of component 1 and 603,000 of component 2); 2,883,200 from AstraZeneca and Oxford; 3,500,000 from Moderna; and 8,000,000 from Sinopharm.

Moderna's biologic will be included in a federal study that will evaluate the combination of doses in the same anti-COVID-19 vaccine schedule, health authorities in Buenos Aires also reported.  The work will examine the immunogenicity and safety of the use of two different doses "and compare heterologous and homologous vaccination schemes."

This study involves the participation of experts from the Coronavirus Unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as researchers from all over the country.

It includes volunteers over 18 years of age immunized with a dose of Sputnik V, AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccines, "with and without identified risk factors for Covid-19 who remain in the jurisdiction where their study was initiated until the end of the study."

It is hoped that this work will generate "solid scientific evidence" to support health policy decision-making, with the participation of federal authorities "and common objectives."

Argentinean health authorities have reported that to date 35,955,274 vaccine doses have been distributed in the country, while 30,139,279 have been applied.  Of this total, 24,047,290 people have received the first dose, while 6,091,989 have already received the full course.

The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the southern country has averaged a weekly application of more than 2.3 million doses in the last four weeks, reaching 73.1 percent of those over 18 years of age who have received at least the first dose.