First batch of vaccines arrives in Colombia | Voice of America

On Monday, the first shipment of vaccines against COVID-19, corresponding to 50,000 doses from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, arrived in Colombian territory.

“Today we are receiving in our country this first batch of vaccines to be dispensed and to save lives,” said President Iván Duque, minutes after a flight from the shipping company DHL, with the cargo, landed at the El Dorado, in Bogotá.

???? #EnVivo | Arrival of the first batch of vaccines against covid-19 in Colombia. https://t.co/wxlz6kPJZh

– Presidency Colombia ???????? (@infopresidencia) February 15, 2021

The flight arrived a little before 1 in the afternoon, and was received by a delegation made up of President Duque, Vice Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez, the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, among other officials in charge of the plan to face the pandemic in the country.

Duque also reiterated that “the agreements were advanced and we were able to carry out a vaccine law.” “We told the country that they would start in February and we are fulfilling Colombia,” he added, highlighting the work to increase the testing capacity, the expansion in the number of Intensive Care Units and the care capacity, as well as social programs to benefit thousands who have fallen into a vulnerable condition.

“Since last year, with the Minister of Health… we began to design a vaccination plan. In July of last year, the committee of experts was formed and we announced to the country in a process that would be dual ”, referring to the negotiation with the pharmaceutical companies and the work with the strategy Covax.

The distribution of the vaccines’ will be in charge of the Ministry of Health, in collection points that are prepared to receive these doses. They will be frozen to maintain the necessary reserves, before being distributed to different regions. In each territory planning will be made to distribute them to the health provider institutes, who will be in charge of carrying out the immunization.

The flight arrived from Belgium, then passed through Miami to finally arrive in Bogotá.

Vaccinate a million Colombians

“This container, coming from Belgium, brings the first 50,000 doses and is the first shipment of a block of 1,650,000 that will arrive in the next three weeks, which comprise the first wave of vaccination against the virus,” said the president earlier. .

We want to report that this afternoon the first 50,000 Pfizer vaccines arrive, from the first shipment of 1,650,000 doses that will be in the country in the next three weeks. pic.twitter.com/7m7b4zXfSj

– Iván Duque ???????? (@IvanDuque) February 15, 2021

The Government plans to vaccinate one million Colombians in the first 30 days of the process and hopes to vaccinate more than 35 million people during 2021. In the 2018 population census, Colombia had a population of 49.65 million inhabitants.

According to Duque, 41.5 million doses have already been acquired from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna and Sinovac. Additionally, he stated, there will be “more than 20 million doses that the Covax mechanism will provide, for a total of 61.5 million doses, equivalent to 35,250,000 Colombians to be vaccinated.”

According to John Hopkins University, Colombia registers 2,195,039 cases of COVID-19 and 57,605 deaths.

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