President Luis Abinader announced the government would give details of the country’s Covid-19 vaccination plan on Monday, 15 February 2021. He said the government recently purchased 768,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines from the People’s Republic of China.
The announcement comes after delays in the delivery of vaccines contracted with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and the Covax Facility of the PAHO/WHO. Health Minister Plutarco Arias had said yesterday the government did not have a date when those vaccines would arrive.
The Chinese Sinovac vaccine has been used in Brazil. It is said to have 50% efficacy, as reported in January 2021 by BBC. The vaccine works by using killed viral particles to expose the body’s immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response. Tests carried out by the Butantan Institute in Brazil indicate the vaccine is 78% in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases.
Studies in Turkey revealed the vaccine was 91.2% effective. The experience in Indonesia, is that it is 65.3% effective.
Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ignacio Paliza is optimistic that the Pfizer-BioNTech (7.9 million doses) and University of Oxford-AstraZeneca (10 million doses) vaccines will begin to arrive as of this March 2021.
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12 February 2021