Algeria decides on Russian option to start vaccination in January
Ammar Belhimer, spokesman for the Algerian government, has announced on national television the signing of a mutual agreement to purchase the Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik-V. This was confirmed by the health minister, Abdel Rahman bin Bouzid.
He made sure of this after a government meeting aimed at deciding on the methods of acquiring the vaccine. This took place one day after a telephone call between the Algerian prime minister, Abdelaziz Djerad, and his Russian counterpart, Mikhaïl Michoustine.
Vaccination campaigns will be prepared from January. He added that the Pasteur Institute has begun a series of consultations with the Russian company that produces the drug Sputnik-V at a time when consultations with other foreign companies are continuing.
He indicated that the Pasteur Institute in Algeria "held a series of negotiations with the Russian company that manufactures the vaccine Sputnik.V and continues to negotiate with other parties".
Sputnik-V, the world's first anti-COVID-19 vaccine, was licensed in Russia last August. The director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RFPI), Kirill Dmitriev, said in mid-December that the third phase of the trials evaluated its effectiveness at 91.4%.
Algeria will buy a first batch of the 500,000-dose COVID-19 vaccine at a cost of 1.5 billion dinars, or $11.2 million, the Finance Ministry's budget director announced on Wednesday. However, he did not mention the company producing the vaccine.
He later announced on Al-Shorouk TV that the budget for the purchase of the vaccine doses is open and can be as high as $150 million.
An order was issued by Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the president of Algeria, from a hospital in Germany on 20 December for the government to speed up the purchase of vaccines so that vaccination campaigns can begin as soon as possible, starting in January. It was also announced that vaccination will be free for all Algerians.
The Algerian health ministry announced on Wednesday that the country has reached 99,311 cases of coronavirus infection with 2,751 deaths.