Argentina Signs Deal With Russia To Acquire COVID-19 Vaccines

Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez on Thursday announced the signing of an agreement to acquire Russian-produced COVID-19 vaccines in order to undertake a national vaccination campaign next year. 

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The contract includes the purchase of "sufficient doses" to vaccinate 10 million Argentines between January and February. 

People at risk will be the first group to be vaccinated, among them health services, armed and security forces personnel, teachers, aged people over 60, and those between 18 and 60 years old with "prevalent diseases".

The contract contains a favorable clause that establishes the supply of 10 million additional doses in case there is a delay in the arrival of the vaccines. 

The meme reads, "She managed to beat the virus!. This is how the 84-year-old Mrs. Blanca celebrated, after learning from nurses that she will be discharged from the Eurnekian Ezeiza Hospital in Buenos Aires where she was admitted because she was infected with COVID-19."

The agreement is the third one signed by Argentina, a country that also reached deals with the British pharmaceutical AstraZeneca, the University of Oxford, and the COVAX initiative promoted by the United Nations (UN). 

"Having a contract that already tells us exactly in what time frame the vaccine will be able to arrive in Argentina is for us a great tranquility and something that the national government has worked a lot," said Fernandez.

Argentina runs second in terms of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South America, having reported over 1,475,222 cases and 40,222 related deaths.