Venezuela received this Saturday a third batch of vaccines against covid-19 with 2.5 million doses from the Covax system, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), reported the country’s Minister of Health, Carlos Alvarado, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Today we received the third shipment of 2.5 million vaccines against covid-19, through the Covax mechanism, to continue advancing in the mass vaccination of the people. Thanks to the efforts made by President Nicolás Maduro, we continue to protect the health and life of each and everyone, ”Alvarado said on his Twitter account.
For its part, Unicef reported, through the same route, that the vaccines are from the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.
“The Pan American Health Organization, Unicef, and other partners accompany the efforts of the Ministry of Health in the introduction of the vaccine against covid-19, and the strengthening of the cold chain for its conservation,” added the agency of the United Nations (UN).
The Covax mechanism sent the first batch of vaccines with 693,600 doses on September 7, while the second was sent on October 10 and it was a shipment that included 2,594,000 doses.
With which the total of vaccines that Venezuela has received from Covax is 5,787,600, according to the shipments reported by the Venezuelan Government.
Venezuela has accelerated, since last August, the vaccination system, after several months in which immunization progressed slowly, due to the few doses that reached the country from Russia and China, and the prolonged blockade of the acquisition through Covax system, definitively resolved in September.
According to President Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela reached 70% of the vaccinated population, without specifying whether the percentage refers to inoculated with the two injections that are required to consider that a person is immunized, or only with the first dose.
As of Friday, the Caribbean country accumulated 417,998 cases and 5,010 deaths from covid-19.
–
