The government manages the purchase of Russian and Chinese vaccines

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TEGUCIGALPA.

Honduras have to wait longer for the arrival of the vaccine against him COVID-19 of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, as it was not selected by the Covax mechanism to receive a first batch of the drug.

Santiago Cornejo, director of Covax, spoke to journalists from Honduras and Bolivia through Zoom about progress in the distribution of the vaccine to the countries and said that the countries most suffering from the devastation of the coronavirus were given priority.

“Honduras was ready to receive the vaccine PfizerUnfortunately, from an epidemiological point of view, we had to look at other variables and prioritize the countries most affected by the pandemic. There were 72 countries that asked to be part of the first batch of Pfizer, but we have a small number of doses, only 1,200,000 for February-March. There will be more doses in the coming quarters and they can give them vaccines Hondurassaid.

The director stressed that the country will receive a batch of the inoculator for the first half of the year from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which is produced by South Korean company SK Bioscience.

President Juan Orlando Hernández announced that he has received confirmation Covax that the first delivery of the vaccine would be between 400,000 and 800,000 doses and arrive in the second half of February. That amount could immunize between 4% and 8% of the population.

However, Cornejo announced that “before Honduras We do not believe the doses will arrive in February, we cannot guarantee when they will arrive, but today as it is AstraZeneca of production coming from Korea could arrive in March, we don’t know exactly, we hope to have more certainty in the coming days and weeks, ”he said.

Direct agreements

The Minister of Finance, Marco Midence, said the government is ensuring the vaccine for the remaining population and that five confidentiality agreements have already been signed with pharmaceutical houses to acquire the vaccine against virus. He confirmed they have sent letters of intent to Russian pharmaceutical houses and China, who have already advanced the testing of their vaccines and are ideal for the country according to logistical conditions.

“We have entered into discussions with several laboratories and international trading houses, which have made substantial progress,” he said.

The official added that they have the money to buy the drugs when the labs are doing the mass sale of the drugs. vaccinations. “We don’t spare any effort or resources. This is priority number one ”.

The mechanism Covax yesterday announced the prognosis of the provisional distribution of the vaccine against COVID-19 to the countries participating in the initiative.

The document outlines the planned delivery of vaccine doses to all participating countries to provide governments and health systems with the information they need to plan their national vaccination programs.

For Honduras, it is expected to deliver 496,800 doses of the vaccine AstraZeneca; however, the last commands will be released in due course, they will be released.

Officials travel to the US to request more vaccines

TEGUCIGALPA. A high-level mission consisting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Lisandro Rosales; of the government’s overall coordination, Carlos Madero, and of the Presidency, Ebal Díaz, traveled to Washington, United States, yesterday to meet with representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to bring the largest number of free vaccines to Honduras .

The officials will meet with PAHO Director, Carissa F. Etienne, and other representatives of the organization to advocate for Honduras to get the maximum number of vaccines on offer in light of the population’s specific case, he said. Finance Minister Marco Midence at a press conference.

“Let’s not forget that the pandemic is not only hitting and hitting us, we have also had the plague of Eta and Iota and resulting in a negative economic impact,” Midence said.

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