Paraguay received one million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine donated by the United States

Paraguay received this Friday one million doses of Pfizer vaccine donated by the United States to strengthen its vaccination plan against the coronavirus, one of the most backward on the continent, observed the AFP.

The vaccines were officially received at the “Silvio Pettirossi” International Airport, which serves the capital Asunción, by the country’s interim president, Hugo Velázquez, the Minister of Health, Julio Borba, the Chancellor Euclides Acevedo and the person in charge of US Embassy Affairs Joe Salazar.

With this donation, the quantity of vaccines arriving in the country is doubled, mainly the proceeds of donations from India, Russia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, among others.

Paraguay is one of the countries furthest behind in immunization schedules, a situation the government attributes to a violation of the WHO’s Covax mechanism, from which it purchased 4,000,000 vaccines due to arrive in October last year.

The Ministry of Health has reported vaccination to date of just over 800,000 people in a country of 7.3 million people.

The holder of this wallet, Julio Borba, stated that the donation will speed up the vaccination process.

With the arrival of Pfizer, health authorities plan to vaccinate up to 90,000 people per day in more than 200 vaccination centers across the country. Currently, the vaccination rate is 55,000 per day.

More than 435,000 inhabitants of Paraguay have been infected with the virus, including more than 13,800 deaths, since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and 435,522 infected, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.

The charge d’affaires of the US embassy said the vaccines will be distributed immediately.

“This year has been difficult for everyone. The donation is positive proof of the strength of relations between the United States and Paraguay. We have provided vital supplies and technical assistance to the people of Paraguay, ”said Salazar.

Velázquez admitted that Paraguayans have “knocked on doors around the world” in search of vaccines and stressed that the US donation “will return to normalcy in Paraguay”.

“We appreciate the gesture of President Biden and the people of the great North American nation», He remarked.

Foreign Minister Euclides Acevedo stressed that the sending “is a breath of hope, a commitment for life, a commitment for peace”.

In contrast, on Thursday, the United States donated the most COVID-19 vaccines Guatemala has received to vaccinate its population amid strong criticism of the government for a low percentage of vaccination.

In addition, Bolivia will soon receive shipments of 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical companies Janssen and Pfizer, respectively, donated by the United States.

“We are going to share more doses with Latin America. Thursday we will send a million doses of Johnson & Johnson to Bolivia and (Friday) we will send a million doses of Pfizer to Paraguay ”, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a press conference aboard the US presidential plane during a trip to Illinois.

Washington has also donated 1.5 million vaccines to El Salvador, 1.5 million to Honduras, 1.3 million to Mexico, 3 million doses to Brazil, 2 million to Peru, 2.5 million to Colombia and 1 million to Ecuador, a country that will receive another million. more vaccines this month.

(With information from AFP)

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