In the wake of the announcement made this Monday by the United States Government that it will donate one million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine against covid-19 to Paraguay, the Minister of Health Julio Borba gave additional details about that donation.
As Minister Borba commented to the media, it is expected that this million doses will arrive in Paraguay in a single shipment, and although he reiterated his reluctance to give exact dates, the head of the health portfolio said “estimated” that the doses would arrive during the first fortnight of the month of July.
Read More: The United States will donate one million Pfizer vaccines to Paraguay
Minister Borba stressed that this is a “direct cooperation” of the United States Government with Paraguay, and that the vaccines will not be processed through the Covax mechanism, through which the North American country manages vaccine donations to various countries.
Logistics to receive vaccines
The minister affirmed that “we are logistically prepared” to receive what would be the largest shipment of vaccines ever sent by Paraguay.
In this sense, he indicated that there are agreements established with private companies for the reception and storage of the doses.
Vaccines purchased from Pfizer, also in July?
Asked about the purchase of a million vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer by the Paraguayan government – something independent of the donation announced by the United States – Minister Borba said that these vaccines would arrive “in batches” instead of being sent all simultaneously .
Read More: Vaccination could be suspended if doses do not arrive on the weekend
Nor did he give an exact date for the first of those shipments, but that “is also expected for July.”
On the other hand, he said that this week “interesting news” will be communicated to the public about the more than 800,000 Sputnik V vaccines that the Russian Investment Fund has yet to send to Paraguay.
Rush the vaccination campaign
Minister Borba said that a press conference will be held on Friday in which the Ministry of Health will outline plans for the next stage of the vaccination campaign, reiterating its opinion that priority should be given to “vulnerable” people with some underlying disease.
Read More: Anticovid vaccination of adults aged 50 years and over begins today throughout the country
He also expressed optimism about the possibility of “expanding much more” the scope of the vaccination campaign, noting that the number of vaccinations in the country has grown and that there is currently a vaccine capacity to around 35,000 people per day.
This Monday, vaccines began in Paraguay for all people 50 years of age or older.
