Argentine transport workers ask for coronavirus vaccine priority

Argentina's main transport workers group will meet on Thursday afternoon with government officials to request that the sector be included among the "vital activities" whose participants have priority to receive the Sputnik coronavirus vaccine.

Argentina's main transport workers group will meet on Thursday afternoon with government officials to request that the sector be included among the "vital activities" whose participants have priority to receive the Sputnik coronavirus vaccine. An Argentine Ministry of Health spokesman told Reuters the meeting between its officials and the Argentine Confederation of Transport Workers (CATT) will take place at 5:00 p.m. local time (2000 GMT).

"The CATT demands to enter the vaccination plan against COVID-19," the group said in a statement on Wednesday. Its leader Juan Carlos Schmid said "all the activities related to transport were declared essential and the different transport unions were working since the beginning of the pandemic." Transportation has been in the news over the last month as truck drivers have blocked access to some grains ports over demands for lower taxes, tolls and fuel prices. Argentina's overall inflation rate exceeded 36% in 2020.

The country is the world's No. 3 corn exporter and top international supplier of soymeal livestock feed used to fatten poultry and hogs from Europe to Southeast Asia. Argentina has so far received 820,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, which is going to health workers. Some 48,539 people in Argentina have died of COVID-19, according to the government.

The South American country, with a population of about 45 million, expects to get millions more doses in the coming months. Priority will be given to people over 60, education workers and security forces, the government has said.