By Agustin Geist
(Reuters) – Argentina on Thursday announced it will sign a COVID-19 vaccine supply agreement with Moderna, as the country attempts to speed up the inoculation of its population and sidestep a possible third wave of the coronavirus.
Cabinet chief Santiago Cafiero told Argentina’s Congress that a deal would be signed with U.S.-based Moderna on Monday, but did not detail the number of doses being bought or the agreed delivery dates.
Argentina has so far largely built its COVID-19 inoculation program around Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, China’s Sinopharm vaccine and British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca’s vaccine. It has vaccinated 23.7 million of its 45 million inhabitants with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 4.9 million people have received two.
As of Wednesday, Argeninta had registered 4.6 million cases of COVID-19 and 97,000 related deaths. The country is at present seeing a decline in cases after a precipitous second wave that triggered fresh lockdowns.
(Reporting by Agustin Geist; Editing by Nicolas Misculin and Paul Simao)
