Colombia will receive in April 2.2 million vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer as part of the National Vaccination Plan to combat the coronavirus, official sources reported this Wednesday.
“Pfizer has just confirmed the arrival and delivery to Colombia of 2.2 million vaccines during the month of April “Health Minister Fernando Ruiz wrote on Twitter.
According to the projection of the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), this year the country will have 51,049,498 inhabitants and the Government seeks to vaccinate 70% of the population to achieve herd immunity against the covid-19.
For this purpose, Colombia has purchased 61.5 million vaccines from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) and Sinovac laboratories, of which it has already received 2.1 million (from Sinovac and Pfizer) that it has begun to apply. on February 17.
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On the other hand, the Government opened the possibility for private companies to acquire vaccines with their own resources and apply them to their employees.
“There is the possibility that when we have passed the stage in which we find ourselves (of vaccination of medical personnel and those over 80 years of age) the door will open for private providers to buy and purchase vaccines,” said the minister in the daily program Prevention & Action, in which President Iván Duque reports on the situation of the pandemic.
According to Ruiz, if this possibility is approved, “it would be, for example, for a company to acquire vaccines from its own pocket, with its own resources, and apply them free of charge to its employees.”
On the other hand, Minister Ruiz reported that after 21 days of vaccination against coronavirus, Colombia has 403,095 immunized people, equivalent to 1.14% of the population targeted by the campaign.
This Tuesday the country reached the highest daily number of vaccinated, with 62,431 people, and today the application of the second dose to medical personnel began.
The coronavirus pandemic leaves more than 2.28 million infections and 60,773 deaths in the country.