This Thursday, July 1, the 2.5 million vaccines donated by the United States will arrive in Colombia

The director of the administrative department of the presidency (Dapre), Víctor Muñoz, confirmed in the afternoon of this Wednesday, June 30 at 11:00 p.m., the procedure for loading the plane that will transport the 2.5 million vaccines donated to Colombia will begin by the government of the United States to fight against the sudden rise of covid-19 in this Latin American country.

According to the information provided by the official, the Colombian Air Force’s Boeing 767 ‘Jupiter’ plane that will bring the Janssen drug biologics to the country, traveled on Tuesday to the American city of Memphis (State of Tennessee) and hopes to land in Colombia in the early hours of July 1.

The people responsible for delivering single-dose vaccines, will be senior officials of the United States Department of Health who are already at the international airport in this city to ensure that organic products are properly shipped to Colombia.

The process is accompanied by the outgoing Colombian Ambassador to the United States, Francisco Santos; the chief of staff of the Ministry of Health, Germán Escobar; and a group of cold chain experts and delegates from the National Disaster Risk Management Unit (UNGRD).

According to Muñoz, “during the day, the packing procedure is done from the storage center where they have the vaccines in Memphis. They are transported at night to the airport and around 11 o’clock in the evening, the loading procedure will begin.”. The plane will take off once it is finished.

That after two days of exhaustive work which required the maximum effort by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Health, the National Risk Management Unit and even the United States Embassy, with the aim of carrying out the logistics in terms of packaging, reception, operation of arrival and departure of the Colombian plane in Memphis and even the administrative formalities to obtain the Sanitary Authorization of Use of ‘Urgency for the first batch that arrives in Colombia as part of the number donation.

Remember that the arrival of 2.5 million American vaccines was confirmed last Monday by the President of the North American country, Joe Biden, during his first telephone conversation with his Colombian counterpart, Iván Duque Márquez. In this dialogue, the Democratic president also expressed his concern about the situation in Venezuela and the negative impact it could cause in the region.

However, the director of Dapre stressed that “tomorrow morning we will receive the 2.5 million vaccines donated by the United States government. It has been a few intense days of work where the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Health, the UNGRD, clearly the United States Embassy, ​​USAID, we have been working minute by minute to organize the logistics. “.

“Here, it only remains for us to thank, it is very important because we remind that the single dose accelerates the complete process of vaccination which already at this moment it exceeds 6.5 million fully immunized Colombians “Muñoz added, recalling that the country will reach 18 million doses applied on June 30 while the target for the month was 17 million. “In July, we will exceed the 25 million doses applied,” he concluded.

Once the vaccines arrive, the expert commission should immediately determine the populations that will benefit from them. It should be remembered that in principle and taking into account the characteristics of organic products, they will be used in remote regions of the country where there is no cold chain supported by deep freezing and in which it is difficult to ensure the timely application of a second dose. Others will go to border towns and capitals.

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