This content was published on 10 April 2021 – 20:58
Quito, Apr 10 (EFE) .- Ecuador received this Saturday a batch of 700,000 vaccines from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac, the largest shipment of doses against covid-19 that has arrived in the country for its mass immunization program, which began in January past.
The cargo arrived on board a commercial plane at the Quito airport, where a special ceremony was prepared led by the country’s vice president, María Alejandra Muñoz, and in which the Minister of Education, Monserrat Creamer; that of Health, Camilo Salinas; and Foreign Minister Manuel Antonio Mejía.
With this batch, Ecuador has received a total of one million doses of the Chinese Sinovac, bringing the total to 1.5 million vaccines, as it has also received smaller shipments from the American Pfizer and the British AstraZeneca / Oxford, the latter under the Covax initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Muñoz, during the ceremony, reiterated the commitment of the President’s Government, Lenín Moreno, to vaccinate some two million people until May 24, when his term ends.
Therefore, the vice president indicated that the current Executive will coordinate an orderly transition of the vaccination plan with the new president that arises from the votes that will take place tomorrow between the progressive Andrés Arauz and the conservative Guillermo Lasso.
He also explained that the government’s vaccination plan plans to vaccinate 9 million people this year and that for this reason it has invested about 200 million dollars to acquire 20 million doses.
Muñoz also indicated that of the 700,000 Sinovac vaccines received, a part will be destined for the vaccination of 250,000 teachers of all levels of education in the country, to start as soon as possible a plan to return to classes in a voluntary, progressive and safe way. .
For her part, the Minister of Education in the following weeks will be vaccinated all teachers in the school system and universities, which adds up to a total of 250,000 teachers.
The process will be developed in an intensive and organized way, to immunize all personnel of the educational system, to boost the process of returning to classes, suspended in March of last year, when the pandemic broke out in the country.
Ecuador began its national vaccination plan on January 21 with a “pilot phase” or “zero phase”, in which vaccines were distributed to first-line health personnel, as well as to the elderly and their assistants in geriatric centers.
On March 4, “Phase 1” of the massive plan began, in which it is expected to immunize 2 million people until May 20 and which included all health personnel, the total of the elderly, police, military and firefighters, among other sectors. EFE
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