Early today, Friday 16th of July 2021, Nicaragua received its latest delivery of the Sputnik V vaccine to help fight the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Ministry of Health (MINSA) were on hand to receive the cartons of vaccines from the Russian Federation, through the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). MINSA said that this latest batch of the Sputnik V vaccine allows the Voluntary Vaccination Program to continue as it reaches the lower age groups.
MINSA did not reveal how many doses were delivered on this occasion, however, the two large cartons looked similar in size to the two previous deliveries of 120,000 and 100,000 doses.
The program started in April with the chronically ill in hospitals, then the over 60’s with chronic health problems, followed by 55 and over with health issues and now the current phase of vaccinations is being administered to citizens and legal residents over 50 years old.
Before this latest delivery today, Nicaragua had received a total of 296,000 doses of Sputnik V, enough for 148,000 people to receive their double dose.
Since May 2021, the Nicaraguan government has a contract with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to provide a total of 1.9 Million doses of the drug.
In addition to the Sputnik V vaccines, Nicaragua has received 335,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from India (200,000 doses as a donation from India and another 135,000 doses through the WHO COVAX Project) or enough for 167,500 people to receive their required double dose.
Also, Nicaragua has the option of using part or all of the loan for US $100 million from The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI by its acronym in Spanish) for the purchase of more Covid-19 vaccinations, when and wherever they are available.
This funding is enough to purchase sufficient doses to vaccinate 70 percent of the population, the number that the WHO recommends a country needs to vaccinate before they can consider the pandemic is over.
