Caracas.- The Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, today issued an ultimatum to the Covax mechanism distribution of vaccines against Covid-19: “Either they send us the vaccines or they give us back the money.”
During a broadcast on Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), Maduro said that Covax has failed Venezuela.
“Eight weeks with the money frozen. And then? Either they send us the vaccines or they give us the money back. Someone must have their hands in it. We have sought the vaccine with our allies. If the Covax system cannot, give us back the money and we will invest it now, now, to bring millions of vaccines ”, highlighted the president, who affirmed that his government has completed the 120 million dollars of payment required by the mechanism of the HIM-HER-IT for access to vaccines in developing countries.
The country has reported more than 276,300 infections and 3,173 deaths from the virus.
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Since February 13, at least 380 thousand doses of the Russian vaccine have arrived in Venezuela Sputnik V, which represents 3.8% of the 10 million that had been agreed in the beginning in December. In March, Venezuela also received a batch of 500,000 doses of the Vero Cell vaccine donated by the Chinese state company Sinopharm. Two months later, Maduro announced the arrival of 1.3 million vaccines from China, without giving details.
Those shipments, plus the one that arrived from Cuba, add up to at least two million 210 thousand vaccines that Venezuela has received. Until last Friday, one million 466 thousand 988 of them had applied, and only 223 thousand 858 people – 0.8% of the population – are fully vaccinated, according to information collected by Johns Hopkins University.
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Maduro had said that by September he wanted to have 70% of the population vaccinated, but today the date went to October.
It is unknown whether Venezuela will receive vaccines through the United Nations’ Covax mechanism. Through it, the country is expected to receive a supply of approximately 11.4 million doses of various vaccines. Last month, Maduro said that $ 10 million that would have covered the amount required by Covax was blocked due to international sanctions facing Venezuela.
*** With AP information
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