QCOSTARICA – Carlos Abarca is the first Costa Rican who received the vaccine against covid-19 in the United States.
The Costa Rican, a resident of Houston, Texas, was vaccinated Thursday morning at his workplace, the Texas Children’s Hospital, where he works in the financial area of the medical center.
“I did it and I feel good. I look forward to the end of this pandemic,” Abarca wrote on his Facebook profile.
The Consulate General of Costa Rica in Houston confirmed that this is the first Tico who received the vaccine against the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in North America.
“Don Carlos encourages all of us who do not have contraindications to vaccinate, as soon as the opportunity to do so presents itself, to have this pandemic under control in the coming months, which has so disrupted our lives,” said the Costa Rican government office in the United States in a statement.
Abarca received the injection on the fourth day of the vaccination campaign in the United States, which began this Monday.
At the moment, the U.S. is applying doses of the drug developed by Pfizer / BioNTech, which are distributed throughout the country in refrigerated boxes at -70 ºC, from the pharmaceutical company’s factory in Michigan.
In Costa Rica, the first vaccines would be arriving in the first quarter of 2021.
The National Vaccination Commission has already defined the priority groups that will receive the doses; among them, health workers, those over 58 years of age and those who have jobs where they come into contact with others, such as domestic workers.