Today, Tuesday 8th June, 2021, MINSA started giving the second dose of the Covishield vaccine to the group that are over 60 and with chronic health conditions. They are following the same order and route as the first round, i.e. León, designated zones in Managua, La Paz Centro, Nagarote, El Sauce and Telica.
The date for the second shot is written on the vaccination card that each person received at the time of the first shot. Today’s patients would have received their first shot on April 6th.
MINSA said that recipients were also being reminded that as well as receiving the Covishield vaccine second dose, they need to maintain their personal protection protocol; hand washing, the use of a mask and social distancing in order to control the spread of the virus.
As reported previously, Nicaragua received 200,000 doses of the Covishield Vaccine on the 5th of March 2021 as a donation from India. Then on March 14th 2021, the COVAX donation program sent 135,000 doses of Covishield to Nicaragua. This was enough for 167,500 people to receive the two shot vaccination.
Sputnik V
Yesterday, Monday June 7th 2021 marked the end of the first round of vaccinations using half of the 70,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine that were delivered on May 4th 2021 from Russia. The 35,000 people that received their vaccines during that phase now wait for the second application.
The period between doses of Sputnik V has been extended from the original 21 days to 90 days. This decision followed studies of the mass vaccinations by the Gamaleya Institute of Russia, the developers of the vaccine. The institute announced that “The increase in the vaccination interval between dose 1 and dose 2 of the Sputnik V vaccine does not affect the strength of the immune response and in some cases even increases the strength and duration of the human immune response”.
AstraZeneca Vaccine
In light of the suspension of Covishield Vaccine exports by the Government of India (due to their own infection rate) the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has stepped in to assure some countries receive their vaccines. PAHO says that Nicaragua, Bolivia and Haiti will still receive the Indian made AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX donation project and anticipate delivery by the end of June/July as the delivery date.
