A total of 6.1 million doses, of six types of vaccines against covid-19, have arrived in Nicaragua, between February 23 and October 25 of this year, as part of a series of donations, loans and direct purchases that the Government of Daniel Ortega did.
The last batch that arrived this afternoon, comes from Spain, a country that has donated 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax Mechanism. With this donation, Spain becomes the main vaccine donor country in Nicaragua.
“These figures show, once again, Spain’s commitment to the health and well-being of the Nicaraguan people. And they follow strictly epidemiological criteria endorsed by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), as is the case with donations to other countries in the region, ”says the Embassy of Spain in Nicaragua.
According to a database compiled by CONFIDENTIAL, with the public registry of the vaccines that have arrived in the country, 41.82% of the total doses received until this noon come from donations made by the Covax Mechanism and the Governments of India, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, Panama and Spain .
These donations are of Covishield / AstraZeneca, Sinopharm vaccines and a minor donation from Sputnik V. Also, there is a batch of 100,000 Pfizer vaccines, which were lent by Honduras to vaccinate pregnant women, postpartum women and infants, due to the delay of a lot to be donated by the Covax Mechanism.
Purchases between allies
The remaining 56.54% of doses are part of direct purchases that the Ortega regime recently made with Russia and Cuba, two of its political allied countries. With these it acquired 3.4 million doses of Sputnik Light, Sputnik V, Soberana 02 and Abdala. None of these vaccines are approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).
With Cuba, the regime acquired seven million doses of the vaccines Abdala, Soberana 02 and Soberana Plus, which are of three doses and will be applied in children older than two years and adolescents. These are the first vaccines worldwide to be applied to children under five years of age and according to medical opinions they have not yet completed the third phase of the study.
Of the total of this purchase already came 1.1 million doses and the rest is expected to arrive between November and December of this year. Ortega has not been clear how much the purchase of these doses amounts to, or what funds he is using to acquire them.
Meanwhile, Russia bought more than 3.2 million doses of Sputnik Light, of which 1.6 million doses have already come. Also, last May they announced the purchase of 1.9 million Sputnik V vaccines; however, only 620,000 doses have arrived. It is unknown if the rest will come in the next few months or if they were switched to the single dose of Sputnik Light.
For the purchase of vaccines, the regime has 100 million dollars, which was delivered by the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), and in addition to its own fund of 19.8 million dollars, which was recently approved by the National Assembly, controlled by the party. of government.
According to the plan presented by the Ministry of Health (Minsa), last January, they planned to purchase three types of vaccines: AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Moderna. However, they have only made purchases with Russia and Cuba.
“We started a process with India, but with the situation they had then (wave of infections) they had to stop the sale outside their territory. And we have had difficulties in the availability of production plants so that they can sell us. However, Once again, it is being taken up again with several AstraZeneca companies, India, and we have been talking with different production plants to see the possibility of speeding up purchases, but that depends on the same availability, “said the Secretary of the Minsa, Carlos Sáenz.
Population distrusts purchased vaccines
To accelerate vaccination in Nicaragua, the regime opted for these vaccines that are approved by the WHO and consequently limit the possibility of travel to countries that are requesting the full vaccination scheme as an entry requirement.
Given this, hundreds of Nicaraguans have traveled to other nearby countries in search of vaccines. This week it was learned that more than seven thousand citizens arrived in Honduras to be immunized at the two vaccination posts that the authorities of that country set up on the border. Meanwhile, others have traveled to the United States, Panama and Costa Rica.
Nicaragua ranks second among countries on the entire continent to have the lowest number of fully immunized people. According to the latest update published by PAHO, only 5.4% of the population has already completed their vaccination schedule; while 14% received their first dose.
