Another batch of 80,000 Sputnik V vaccines against covid-19 arrives in Venezuela

Caracas, Apr 24 – Venezuela received this Saturday a new batch of 80,000 Sputnik V vaccines against covid-19, in addition to the 300,000 doses already received of that drug and the 500,000 from the Chinese Sinopharm, the minister reported. of Health, Carlos Alvarado.

In a statement at the Maiquetía airport, which serves Caracas and where the vaccines arrived, Alvarado explained that with the new doses they hope to “complete” the immunization of health personnel and “incorporate an important group of older adults.”

So far, the inoculation of vaccines has aroused much criticism among health workers, many of whom denounce that they have not received any doses.

In addition, the Government has not made public the number of vaccines that have already been applied.
Upon receiving the new doses, the Minister of Health assured that Sputnik-V “has shown great utility in those over 60 years of age” and stressed that it is the one being used for that population group, as well as for health workers.
He also affirmed that President Nicolás Maduro has ordered the commission in charge of dealing with the pandemic “to seek all possible alternatives in the world” for access to vaccines.
In this sense, he stressed that the Venezuelan authorities will make a second disbursement this week for the Covax mechanism that guarantees the arrival of “more than 11 million doses” of vaccines against covid-19.
“This Covax fund is advancing very quickly, we hope that by July or August we can have these vaccines in Venezuela,” added Alvarado.
He also referred to the agreement signed with Cuba for the “acquisition and production” of the vaccine project known as “Abdala”, which is currently in phase 3 of trials.

The minister clarified that the tests will begin “in the next two weeks”, both of the “Abdala” and of the EpiVacCorona, also developed in Russia.

For his part, the Russian ambassador in Caracas, Sergey Mélik-Bagdasárov, stressed that, “from the beginning, the Venezuelan government bet” on the “scientific achievements” of Russia and was “the only country in this hemisphere that did a complete test clinical “of Sputnik V.

The diplomat stressed that this vaccine is sent to Venezuela “regularly”, which “promotes the health system” of the Caribbean country and shows solidarity with the Government of Nicolás Maduro.