Argentina on 'right path' in fight against COVID-19: president

BUENOS AIRES - Argentina is on the "right path" in the fight against the novel coronavirus disease, President Alberto Fernandez said on Monday, underscoring the importance of vaccines against the virus being considered a global public good available worldwide.

"We must preserve health before income, so we are concerned that the vaccine be free and that everyone have access to it," Fernandez said during a visit to a COVID-19 vaccination center at the National University of Lanus, on the southern outskirts of the capital Buenos Aires.

According to a statement from the president's office, Fernandez said the vaccine should not be conceived as a commercial product "but as a global good that everyone should be able to access".

The Argentine president also thanked healthcare workers for their dedication to combating the pandemic through a national vaccination campaign launched in December.

"My eternal gratitude to all of them," Fernandez said.

Argentina detected its first case of COVID-19 on March 3, 2020 and as of Sunday had accumulated 2,245,771 confirmed cases of infection and 54,545 deaths from the disease.