"We are doing everything possible so that it could arrive in Argentina next week," Cecilia Nicolini said in an interview, adding that the government hoped to import the Sputnik V vaccine before Christmas.
Nicolini, who was in Moscow on Thursday to coordinate the vaccine delivery, said Buenos Aires would initially receive 300,000 doses of the first component.
Earlier, Argentinian TN channel reported, citing governmental sources, that Argentina would receive its first doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 on December 23.
As the media reports, the Aerolineas Argentinas flag carrier aircraft will travel on Monday to Moscow and return on Wednesday with 600,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
The Argentine Aviation Technical Personnel Association is reportedly modifying an Airbus A330 200 to equip the plane with a refrigeration system to transfer the Russian vaccine.
Earlier, authorities in Argentina sent an advance group of experts who have been schooled in details concerning the Sputnik V vaccine.
Last week, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez signed a contract with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on the delivery of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus. The country has set a goal to immunize 10 million people between January and February of 2021.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia has been at the forefront of vaccine development, with two of its products, Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, and EpiVacCorona, developed by the Siberian research center Vector, already in the Phase 3 trials. Another vaccine, by the Chumakov research center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will begin Phase 3 trials early in 2021.
