Argentine President AlbertoFernández said Tuesday that his country has accepted a proposition from Russia to acquire an initial 10 million doses of its main candidate COVID vaccine, as the number of cases continues to rise in the South American nation.
"We had a proposal from the Russian foreign ministry...to see if Argentina was interested in acquiring doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in the month of December and of course we said yes," Reuters quoted Fernandez as saying.
The Sputnik V vaccine is being developed by Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute, with backing from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Argentina's deputy health minister had flown to Russia to evaluate the vaccine's development, the government said.
Argentina reported its first COVID infection March 3 and has tallied around 1,173,533 cases with 31,140 fatalities as of Monday night. The country's health experts are currently working on measures for a countrywide immunization.
Sputnik V, which is administered in two parts, could arrive early provided clinical tests are successful, Fernandez said. If successful, another 15 million doses could arrive by early January, he added.
According to RDIF's chief executive officer Kirill Dmitriev, the Sputnik V vaccine that will be supplied to Argentina will be produced by the fund's partners in China, Korea and India, including a number of other nations. Last month, Dmitriev disclosed that RDIF considered supplying Sputnik V to Peru and Argentina.
In August, Russia announced that it had registered the world's first COVID vaccine, saying it would be named after the famous Soviet-era orbiter. Russia has requested the World Health Organisation to fast-track its registration and pre-qualification.
The Russian fund said that accelerated registration would make the Sputnik V available worldwide in a shorter period of time compared to normal procedures.
Argentina has given the green light to at least 19 COVID vaccine clinical tests, its health ministry said. Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are among the biotech groups currently conducting tests in the country.
