Venezuela pays more than 50% of the COVAX plan to access vaccines against the coronavirus

The government of Venezuela announced this Saturday that it managed to deposit more than 50% of the COVAX mechanism, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), to acquire vaccines against coronavirus offered by this program, and explained that the country had presented delays in payment for the “resource lock”.

“The Government of President Nicolás Maduro, through the diplomatic and legal efforts deployed at the international level, has already managed to consign 50%, something more, of the COVAX mechanism”Said the executive vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, at a press appearance.

As indicated, the amount canceled was 59.2 million Swiss francs, that is, about 64 million dollars out of a total of 119,999,920 million dollars.

“The other 60 million dollars required for the Covax mechanism are already guaranteed and, in due course, when appropriate, Venezuela will also cancel this much-needed amount.”, He added.

The Vice President of Venezuela Delcy Rodríguez.

The vice president did not explain how the payment was made, despite the fact that she has denounced on several occasions that the Venezuelan government has blocked 7,000 million dollars in countries such as USA that they do not recognize Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela and that for that reason the mechanism had not been canceled.

He explained that on Friday he received a “communication”Of the person in charge of the COVAX plan for Latin America, Santiago Cornepo, in which he informed him about the approval of the transaction.

“These funds will be used as part of the initial payment to the mechanism and for the purchase of an approved COVID-19 vaccinethe dust Venezuela, He said Rodriguez by reading the text you received.

Rodriguez He recalled that on September 18, the Minister of Health of his country, Carlos Alvarado, signed a commitment with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to access 11,374,400 doses for vaccines and immunize 20% of the Venezuelan population .

He also reiterated that they will continue working to achieve the release of resources and asked the president of USA, Joe Biden, get “Hand on heart” and lift sanctions against the country because Venezuela “You are going through a humanitarian situation” derived, according to said, of these measures and the pandemic.

The payment of the COVAX plan was being managed by the Venezuelan opposition, according to what the leader Juan Guaidó had said, to whom USA recognized as interim president.

According Guaidó, the opposition was going to request the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of USA a license to access the funds and pay for the plan.

Venezuela accumulated 172,461 cases of COVID-19 and 1,739 deaths as of Friday.