Nicaragua received this Friday 657,540 doses of Pfizer vaccines, donated by the United States, through the COVAX Mechanism, which added to the first batch, in October 2021, are around one million vaccines, equivalent to “almost 20 million dollars in assistance of the United States” for the prevention of covid-19 in Nicaragua, said Timothy Stater, chargé d’affaires of the US embassy.
The lot was received at the Augusto C. Sandino International Airport by the Minister of Health, Martha Reyes; the general secretary of the Minsa, Carlos Sáenz; the director of Health Surveillance, Cristian Toledo; the representative of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Ana Solís; the deputy representative of UNICEF in Nicaragua, Eduardo Gallardo; USAID Mission Director Michael Eddy and Stater.
From February 2021 to date, the Ortega regime has accumulated 16.3 million vaccines against covid-19 from eight different sera: Covishield/AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinopharm, Soberana 02, Abdala, Sputnik V/Sputnik Light, Janssenand more recently, the Iranian vaccine Coviran.
On Tuesday, June 21, the Minsa also received 200,000 doses of the Coviran serum, which, like the Cuban vaccines that are applied to children, are not authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO).
These serums are part of a package of agreements of cooperation between the Ortega regime and its former partner, Iran, signed on May 7, after the visit of a high-level commission to the country; same that promised to supply petroleum derivatives to Nicaragua.
Stater announced that, in the coming weeks, Nicaragua will receive 1.4 million pediatric doses from Pfizer; this would be the first batch of sera for boys and girls, whose use is authorized by the WHO. Until now, the vaccines that the regime applies to minors are the Cuban ones, which do not have sufficient scientific information and have been confirmed by independent doctors, which creates distrust among the population.
For over 18 years
Reyes assured that Pfizer vaccines will be applied to the population over 18 years of age, which will allow completing the scheduled requirements for the second half of 2022, although he did not specify how many doses are needed to maintain coverage of the immunization days against the pandemic. According to PAHO data, 80% of the population in Nicaragua has completed their two-dose vaccination schedule.
The streamlining of pandemic vaccine coverage began in the last quarter of 2021, when the Ortega regime received several donations and purchased batches of serum to protect the population, which went through a second wave of infections —between August and October— with a level less than 10% of the immunized population.
However, in 2022, when vaccination was extended to the entire population and house-to-house immunization days were established, irregularities have been reported because the Minsa would be inflating the statistics to PAHO by counting as first and second doses, reinforcements and the vaccines applied in the “2022 vaccination scheme”, which Daniel Ortega authorized without showing medical support to support this decision.
Also, an analysis of data from CONFIDENTIAL, revealed that the populations with the least access to vaccines are those of the Caribbean, the poorest and most vulnerable. In addition, health sources revealed that the Minsa applied two batches of expired sera; one from Pfizer and the other from Sputnik Light.
