Uruguay: Piñera’s key help to Lacalle Pou to get vaccinated

MONTEVIDEO.- The Uruguayan government received the first batch of coronavirus vaccines this morning Thanks to help from Chilean President Sebastián Piñera.

When the flight arrived in Santiago, before continuing to Montevideo, the Chilean president said: “Uruguay and Chile are brother countries with a long tradition of support, collaboration and friendship. We are working with Uruguay, in fact, we were able to provide transport so that the first vaccines could reach Uruguay ”.

Piñera said his government “collaborates with many other countries” and referred to “Prosur”, a coordination of countries in the region, which replaced previous leftist governments meeting in Unasur, now dissolved.

“Nobody assures us that we will not have to vaccinate our population again next year”, so the collaboration between the South American nations “is not over.”

Piñera gave a political nod to his Uruguayan colleague and sent a public salute to Luis Lacalle Pou. “Because he does a great job”said the Chilean president.

The first to get vaccinated

The government has started planning which groups will be prioritized for enforcement: Tomorrow they start with the vaccinators and on Monday they will continue with the health personnel assigned to the execution of the plan, teachers and education workers. that on Monday they begin the cycle of face-to-face lessons, as well as for the active police and military.

The first shipment arrived in Uruguay was 192 thousand doses of Coronavac manufactured by Sinovac, while for the next few days more from this laboratory in China awaits, as well as those purchased from Pfizer and those that correspond to the Covax system of the world organization. Health (WHO), which in this case are AstraZeneca.

President Luis Lacalle Pou assured that in a period of two months the country will receive more than two million doses, for a country of 3.5 million inhabitants, of which approximately 2.7 million are in the target of a possible vaccination.

The president’s decision is that the vaccine is not mandatory, that it be applied in a strict order established by the medical officers.

The vaccines left Beijing, Chile with a stopover in Sydney, Australia.

No reception protocol

The government rejected the idea of ​​a protocol for the political reception of vaccines and everything was limited to regular terminal staff. The manager of the airport control tower allowed the Chilean plane to enter the runway and gave a message to the pilot, which was recorded and broadcast last night on social networks: “Sir: we are you welcome to Carrasco International Airport; For us and for all Uruguayans, it is a pride to receive this historic flight; We thank them for bringing the first vaccines to the country ”.

The pilot replied: “We are grateful for the welcome, it is a pride as a company and as a pilot to be able to offer this help for the terrible pandemic.”

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