Q24N – On Wednesday, El Salvador, received its first batch – 20,000 doses – of the AstraZeneca vaccines, allowing the country to begin immunizing health personnel at a time when the pandemic is showing a decline, Health Minister Francisco Alabí reported.
From India, the vaccines arrived on an Iberia flight at the Óscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport.
“This day is a day in which we have new hope in the framework of this disease (covid-19) that has generated complications worldwide,” Alabí said upon receiving the cargo.
Escorted by the Police and in two small refrigerated trucks, the vaccines were transported to the National Biological Center (Cenabi), in the El Matazano community, Soyapango, 7 km east of the city of San Salvador.
Shipments from the World Health Organization (WHO) Covax initiative to supply vaccines to disadvantaged countries will not arrive until the first week of March, said President Nayib Bukele.
El Salvador, with a population of 6.6 million, has accumulated 58,023 positive cases, with 1,767 deaths associated with covid.
El Salvador is the third Central American country to receive vaccines.
Costa Rica was the first, receiving its first batch from Pfizer on December 23.
Panama was the second country in the isthmus, receiving its first batch of vaccines from Pfizer on January 19.
