Argentina COVID-19 deaths surpass 100,000 in grim milestone

Argentina on Wednesdayreached a grim milestone in its fight to control the pandemic as deaths caused by COVID-19 crossed 100,000.

As per the data published by the health ministry, 19,697 new cases and 614 more deaths were recorded taking the total number of deaths to 100,250.

Jimena Blanco, director of Latin America research at consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft, was quoted by Bloomberg saying, "The structural, economic and political challenges that have made Argentina one of the worst performing countries in the world in terms of managing the health and economic crisis triggered by COVID-19, will also make it one of the slowest to recover".

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Unable to broker agreements with US vaccine manufacturers initially, the government relied on a mix of Russia’s Sputnik V jab, China’s Sinopharm shot and AstraZeneca Plc’s dose while supply delays have crimped its inoculation campaign.

Also, around 45 per cent of Argentines have received one jab, as the government favoured the strategy of inoculating as many people with their first dose as possible, while just 11% of the population has received both shots, reports Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker.

Talks between Argentina and Pfizer began in June 2020. In July, President Alberto Fernandez held a meeting with Pfizer's Argentina CEO.

Then, Pfizer asked to be compensated for the cost of any future civil lawsuits. If someone files a civil lawsuit against Pfizer in Argentina and wins that case, the government of Argentina and not Pfizer would pay the compensation. So, Argentina's parliament passed a new law in October 2020, but Pfizer was unhappy with its phrasing. The law said Pfizer needs to at least pay for negligence, for its own mistakes if it happens to make any in the future.

Pfizer rejected this, after which Argentina offered to amend the law to define negligence more clearly - to include only vaccine distribution and delivery under negligence.

Pfizer was still not happy and demanded the law be amended through a new decree, which Argentina refused. Pfizer then asked Argentina to buy international insurance to pay for potential future cases against Pfizer, to which the country agreed.

In December 2020, Pfizer came back with more demands and demanded sovereign assets as collateral. Pfizer wanted Argentina to put its bank reserves, military bases and embassy buildings at stake.