Vaccine Choice: Sinopharm Now Available

The Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated to Belize by the United Arab Emirates in early April is now available to the public. Those doses had been shelved, awaiting approval for emergency use from The World Health Organization. With that approval, the Ministry of Health and Wellness is now prepared to offer the vaccine as an option to persons in phases one, two and three. News Five spoke with Doctor Natalia Beer about this additional vaccine option. 

Natalia Largaespada Beer

Dr. Natalia Largaespada Beer, Maternal & Child Health Technical Advisor, M.O.H.W.

“We have ten thousand doses in country. Once it is made available in public, they will have an opportunity to choose between AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.  At this moment studies are still ongoing with the mismatch of vaccines and it is recommended globally that if you get first dose AstraZeneca, you get second does AstraZeneca. If you get first dose Sinopharm, you get second dose Sinopharm. So the Sinopharm right now is available for persons who have not been vaccinated.   It is currently used in forty-two countries. In the Latin American and Caribbean region, it is being used in Peru, Argentina, Chile and in the Caribbean, it is being used in Dominica and Guyana. It was being used even before WHO approval for emergency use listing. So I think we just wanted to be safe, waiting on the approval. But it has been used in other countries, even before the approval.   The efficacy against symptomatic infection due to Covid-19 is seventy nine percent after receiving the second dose the first fourteen days.”