MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Moderna's pediatrics vax to become available in Argentina later this month

Vizzotti also explained the Ministry was after Moderna's bivariate vaccine, against the original and the Omicron variants

Argentina's Health Minister Carla Vizzotti Friday announced her country was about to receive the first batch of 1,400,000 doses of Moderna's pediatric COVID-19 vaccine to be applied to children between six months and three years of age.

Before Moderna's, there were no vaccines for children that age. The shipment is due July 25 and the drug already has “the approval of the Anmat” sanitary agency.

After Vizzotti's announcement, President Alberto Fernández posted on his Twitter account that “Argentina becomes the first country in Latin America, and one of the first in the world, to start vaccinating girls and boys from that age against Covid-19.

Vizzotti also explained the new medication can be used on children aged between 3 and 5 years who have already received Sinopharm's drug. The minister also announced that she hoped that by the end of the year Moderna's ”bivariate“ vaccine against the original and the Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 for adults will become available. That medication, however, still needs to go through Anmat's approval.

The President ”was very happy with this news because since the first day of the pandemic the national government and the Ministry of Health have been working to achieve it, and he asked me to communicate it immediately, to the families who have been waiting since the beginning of the pandemic to vaccinate their children, who make up a very particular population, especially children at risk,“ Vizzotti stressed.

”I have informed the President that Argentina has advanced all the steps with the Moderna laboratory for its authorization by Anmat and the amendment of the contract, and he confirmed that the first shipment of 1,400,000 pediatric doses will arrive from the week of July 25 to be able to vaccinate children between six months and three years of age,“ she added.

”The amendment includes being able to receive from the end of the year, pending regulatory authorization, whose process has already begun, the bivariate vaccine, against the original variant of Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, for adults,“ Vizzotti also explained.

This process has ”the endorsement of the National Immunization Commission”, explained Vizzotti, who also announced shoe would hold a virtual meeting Monday with the Argentine Society of Pediatrics (SAP), to convey data on the new vaccines with technical guidelines for pediatricians nationwide.

In addition, ”we are going to hold, as always, meetings with the Federal Health Council (Cofesa) and move forward with the provincial plans as the doses arrive in order to define the plan for each jurisdiction“.

Vizzotti underlined that ”until now there were no vaccines available in the world“ for this age group, but some ”three weeks ago the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European agency gave the go-ahead for these vaccines for children under five years of age.“

”Since we had vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine from three to 11 years of age, we needed a booster vaccine for children from three to four years of age and to start the two-dose schedule,“ she added.

When highlighting the importance of vaccination to minimize the impact of the virus, the minister estimated that ”the virus will remain seasonal, we will surely have cases every year in winter and most of those cases will be in unvaccinated, high-risk people.“

Vizzotti also admitted there has been ”an increase of cases in people over fifty years of age“, but said that ”since the beginning of this winter, the increase was not of the magnitude of previous years and did not translate into hospitalizations“.

Regarding facemasks, which are mandatory at the federal level, Vizzotti said that ”we are at the moment when the number of cases is already decreasing, with the vaccination, we are evaluating in the Federal Health Council and in the Ministry of Health when the obligatory nature could be withdrawn“ and move on to the recommendation ”knowing that the population has listened and has taken care of itself“.

According to the minister, little more than 90 percent of the Argentine population has taken one dose, 82% two doses, and among those over 50 years of age, more than 70 percent have received the first booster dose, ”and we are one of the few countries that are giving the second booster.”

(Source: Télam)