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peppertree

(21,529 posts)
Wed Apr 21, 2021, 01:18 AM Apr 2021

Local firm produces first batch of Covid vaccine in Argentina

An Argentine pharmaceutical firm says it has produced the first local batch of the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus and will be dispatching it to Moscow for quality control checks imminently.

The first batch consisted of 21,176 doses. Laboratorios Richmond confirmed that mass production of the vaccine would begin in June, with an estimated initial capacity of one million doses monthly - and eventually up to 5 million monthly.

The announcement means that Argentina has now become the first country in Latin America to start production of Sputnik V, originally developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Centre.

According to a press release, the doses produced in Argentina “could be exported to countries in Latin America at a later stage.”

Gamaleya's Sputnik V accounts for 62% of the 6.5 million doses applied thus far in Argentina - mainly to senior citizens and health, education and security staff.

A recent poll shows that while 79% of Argentine adults are willing to be vaccinated, 62% believe the campaign is going “slowly.”

Daily COVID-19 cases there have skyrocketed from 7,000 a month ago, to 29,145 on Monday; nearly 60,000 deaths have been recorded since the pandemic began.

Some 63% of those surveyed backed crowding restrictions enacted by President Alberto Fernández on April 9th, effective for three weeks.

“Since classes returned (on March 1st), the contagion curve has grown exponentially,” Fernández explained on Friday.

Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta - whose right-wing JxC coalition staunchly opposes Fernández - has defied the in-person schooling suspension however, despite a federal court ruling today.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/pharmaceutical-firm-produces-first-batch-of-sputnik-v-vaccine-in-argentina.phtml



Argentine Presidential Advisor Cecilia Nicolini, Health Minister Carla Vizzotti, and Richmond Laboratories President Marcelo Figueiras pose with vials of locally-made Sputnik V vaccine - which Richmond plans to mass-produce by June, pending approval from Russia's Gamaleya.

This would make Argentina, currently struggling with one of the world's highest rates of new daily COVID-19 cases, one of around a dozen countries producing a vaccine.

So far just 1 in 8 Argentines have received at least one dose, compared to 40% in the U.S.
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Local firm produces first batch of Covid vaccine in Argentina (Original Post) peppertree Apr 2021 OP
Stepping into production in Argentina of Covid-19 vaccine is wonderful. What great news. Judi Lynn Apr 2021 #1
And not a moment too soon peppertree Apr 2021 #2
Oh, my..... This is such a shock. The area is devastated. Doesn't seem possible. Judi Lynn Apr 2021 #3

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
1. Stepping into production in Argentina of Covid-19 vaccine is wonderful. What great news.
Wed Apr 21, 2021, 04:18 AM
Apr 2021

So forward thinking, Argentina will start shipments to other countries once domestic distribution is initiated and underway. Creating a process right in Argentina will be a godsend. The article says only Argentina in Latin Ameria will have this ability. Think how far Argentina has come since the fascist Macri lost his re-election to the socially responsible President Alberto Fernández. Unbelievable!

Argentina is managing this, with the new President, while also uprighting itself after Macri tore the economy completely down, and ran it into the ditch.

President Fernández is multi-managing in a country which was destroyed on so many levels under fascist Macri. The Covid-19 numbers are going to be heading into a whole new kind of experience soon, it appears.

Very best wishes for the administration as it attacks a monstrously wrecked economy and abused society in Macri's wake. The new people are already on the job, putting things right again.

So glad to hear President Fernández is pursuing this higher road for the country now.

Thank you, peppertree. 🌳

peppertree

(21,529 posts)
2. And not a moment too soon
Wed Apr 21, 2021, 01:11 PM
Apr 2021

These new, more contagious strains have really taken hold - and the situation's desperate, Judi.

Hospitals in the Buenos Aires metro area (the most severely affected) are beginning to run out of ICU beds, with total ICU occupancy in the area now up to 75% and rising.

This number, while not critical, means that many hospitals are having to transfer patients - including non-Covid cases (heart attacks, etc.) - to other hospitals.

And I don't to tell you what this new, record wave of Covid cases is doing to the economy.

The number of shuttered businesses, particularly in high-rent Buenos Aires (with its greedy landlords unwilling to renegotiate rents), is phenomenal; downtown, in that sense, looks like it did in the 2002 crisis.

Here's a walking tour of downtown Buenos Aires, taken a few days ago. It's in Spanish - but you'll get the idea; FOR RENT signs everywhere.

Thanks as always, Judi.

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
3. Oh, my..... This is such a shock. The area is devastated. Doesn't seem possible.
Thu Apr 22, 2021, 04:22 AM
Apr 2021

The buildings are beautiful, the area clearly was perfectly super clean and well maintained, always. Now so many storefronts are covered with those metal shields, undoubtedly for the first time ever, and the stores without super protection are simply empty in most cases.

I noticed someone riding a bike through the city totally freely with no heavy traffic from any direction, it must seem like a science fiction movie to the rider.

So the landlords aren't willing to wait with the tenants who have been there for years. Insane. You'd think they'd find some value in negotiating with the store-owners. They should be ashamed.

It must make you so sad seeing what has happened there.

Here's hoping as the country revs up its own vaccine production, they might start seeing the pay-off soon, and maybe things might start returning to life, if there is to be any possible good ahead. Being able to sell the product to the other countries which, like Brazil, have had to import vaccine from far, far away from South America, Central America, will also help replenish the treasury. Gotta hope, somehow life will return.

They do have a balanced, focused, skilled force working for them with this administration, for the first time in four years. Will be hoping for better news every day from now.

(I do enjoy the differences in the accents of the speakers in the video clip. I could swear the first voice I heard almost seemed to have an Italian accent! So interesting!)

Really appreciate your sharing this look at the shopping area in the city, peppertree. Thank you.

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