The United States announced the shipment to Guatemala of three million doses of the coronavirus vaccine as part of its assistance to combat the pandemic.
With this new donation, there are already 4.5 million vaccines that the US government allocates to the Central American country in an attempt to contain the virus.
“The United States is pleased to announce that it is preparing to send an additional 3 million doses of the Moderna vaccine against COVID-19 to Guatemala next week,” the US embassy in Guatemala reported in a press release.
“This second shipment is in addition to the one and a half million doses sent to Guatemala on July 8, and is part of the more than 26 million dollars in bilateral assistance for the pandemic that have been destined for Guatemala.”
Thousands of Guatemalans maintain their rejection of the government of Alejandro Giammattei for its handling of the pandemic, lack of doses and doubts in a business to purchase Sputnik vaccines through a Russian fund.
The Giammattei government signed an agreement with a Russian fund for the purchase of 16 million Sputnik vaccines and last April paid almost 80 million dollars as an advance of 50% of the total. However, three months later the country has only received 860,000 doses.
The lack of vaccines has generated the discontent of the population that has asked the president to resign from office.
On Saturday for the second time, a protest against the Giammattei government was called in front of the National Palace.
In his attempt to contain the protests, the president decreed a state of prevention to limit the constitutional right to demonstrate.
According to official reports, Guatemala has registered 333,126 cases of coronavirus and 9,898 people have died from the virus since the pandemic began.
Of the approximately 17 million inhabitants of Guatemala, only about 254,727 (1.5%) have been inoculated with the complete scheme.
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