Yesterday, Friday 2nd July, 2021, Nicaragua received another delivery of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia for their Voluntary Covid-19 Vaccination Program. The delivery of 100,000 doses was received by the Ministry of Health (MINSA) and representatives from the Embassy of the Russian Federation here in Nicaragua.
The government noted that these doses “will be applied immediately to continue the Covid-19 Vaccination Program”. The latest delivery will extend the vaccination program by another 50,000 people who will receive their first of two doses.
The last delivery of vaccines was also from Russia and was made on June 15th 2021 when 120,000 doses arrived through the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).
Total Covid-19 Vaccine Doses Received by Nicaragua;
Sputnik V – 6,000 doses from Russia on the 22nd February 2021
Covishield – 200,000 doses from India, delivered on the 5th March 2021
Covishield – 135,000 doses from WHO COVAX on the 14th March 2021
Sputnik V – 70,000 doses from Russia on the 4th of May 2021.
Sputnik V – 120,000 doses from Russian on the 15th of June 2021
Sputnik V – 100,000 doses delivered from Russia on the 2nd of July 2021
Total Vaccine Doses to Date: 631,000
Enough for 315,500 People to Receive their Double Dose
(Covishield and Sputnik V both require two doses)
Breaking the Chain of Transmission
MINSA has previously announced that the Covid-19 Vaccination Program in Nicaragua needs to vaccinate from between 60 to 70% of the population. This is a number recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the desired number of adults (12 years of age or over) that a country needs to vaccinate in order to break the chain of transmission.
The population of Nicaragua is about 6.6 million people, however, many of those live and work out of the country. Some organizations believe as many as 1 million citizens, or 15% of the population doesn’t live in Nicaragua.
Also, the Population Pyramid of Nicaragua shows that Children under 12 would total about 30% of the population.
So, a rough calculation using the number of the population actually living in Nicaragua (5.6 million) and taking away the children 12 and under, the number left to be vaccinated is a little fewer than 4 million people.
The WHO are saying that with only 60-70% of those 4 million vaccinated (2.4 to 2.8 million people), it would be possible to break the chain of transmission.
After this latest delivery of Sputnik V has been administered, a total of 315,500 people will have been vaccinated with two shots since the program started.
That would mean an approximate vaccination rate of about 12% of those that should be vaccinated and who volunteered under the program.
