The third part of all doses are those packaged between Argentina and Mexico, from the Anglo-Swedish firm Aztrazeneca, which require two doses in their basic scheme. | Photo: @minsal_ar
Buenos Aires, January 31 (RHC)-- Argentina's Ministry of Health reported this Sunday that in order to ensure equitable access to vaccines against the COvid-19 pandemic in the world, the nation donated a total of 4 million drugs to mitigate the humanitarian impacts of the virus.
The third part of all doses are those packaged between Argentina and Mexico, from the Anglo-Swedish firm Aztrazeneca and which require two doses in their basic scheme, although they are also being used as booster doses in some countries.
In five decrees published in the Official Gazette in the first days of November 2021, the Government presided by Alberto Fernández authorized the donation of vaccines in reserve from AstraZeneca.
The measure issued by the Executive details that the amount agreed through diplomatic channels with the first countries that accepted the offer was allocated as follows: 450,000 doses for Mozambique, 500,000 for Vietnam, 18,000 for St. Lucia, 11,000 for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and 2,000 for Dominica.
Last December, three other decrees added another 350,000 doses for Angola, 400,000 for Kenya and 30,000 for Barbados.
The donation was based on the principles of solidarity and fraternity for equitable and timely access to antiviral vaccines. According to the decrees, the United States (USA), Canada, the United Mexican States and the Kingdom of Spain donated 7,063,400 vaccines to the Argentine Republic at a time when access to vaccines was more difficult than at present. This made it possible for Argentina to move forward with the vaccination campaign, which accelerated the complete scheme for the most at-risk population and led to the current epidemiological scenario."
According to data from the Ministry of Health, so far, Bolivia and Egypt are the two countries that have benefited the most from Argentina's assistance in sending vaccines, since each received a shipment of one million doses.
Most of the batches of donated vaccines were close to their expiration date (some expired at the end of December 2021 and others at the end of January 2022), so the amount agreed upon by the different nations depended on their own implementation capacity.