Argentina aims to complete COVID vaccination for children between ages 3-11 by 2021 end

The Health Minister of Argentina Carla Vizzotti announced that the Argentine National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT) has approved the usage of the Chinese pharmaceutical company’s Sinopharm vaccination against COVID for children between the age of 3 to 11. Vizzotti further revealed that the campaign will begin before the end of this year.  

On October 1, Vizzotti spoke about COVID vaccines for kids at a news conference and said, “ANMAT has confirmed that we can use Sinopharm [vaccine] for children aged 3-11 years ... Argentina will finish 2021 with the full coverage and protection of people aged over 3 years," as quoted by ANI. According to the health ministry, Argentina has a population of between 5.5 and 6 million youngsters at this age.

COVID vaccination milestone in Argentina

Meanwhile, as per the Buenos Aires Times website, on the weekend of September 24, Argentina had reached a milestone of 67 million doses of COVID-19 vaccination with over three million doses from Sinopharm, arrived in three shipments. Earlier, in a statement, Health Ministry stated that an aircraft carrying 1,440,000 doses would land on Saturday, whereas two additional deliveries containing 1,440,000 and 192,000 doses would also arrive. The Argentina administration's mass immunisation effort against COVID-19 had taken up significantly after a disappointing start. Over 50 million vaccinations had been administered to citizens and international residents as of September 24, Friday morning.

On September 23, President Alberto Fernández's government received an additional contribution of 842,400 units of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine. The delivery consisted of a sum of 7.5 million vaccinations which the Spanish authorities have pledged to provide to Ibero-American nations underneath the World Health Organisation's Covax program. This scheme is designed to guarantee worldwide and equal access to the COVID vaccines.

COVID-19 scenario in Argentina

In the last 24 hours, Argentina has documented nearly 1564 COVID-19 cases. According to the latest numbers provided by the Worldometer, the total number of confirmed cases in the nation is 5,258,466 whereas the total number of fatalities is 115,225. Over 5,119,953 have been recovered from the disease. Yet, the average number of COVID-19 instances recorded in the last seven days is 1374. Currently, the total number of active cases in the nation is 23,288.   

(Image: PTI/ Pixabay)