The president of Panama Laurentino Cortizo said this Monday that 1,101 centers will be enabled for the application of the vaccine against COVID-19 to the population included in Phase 2, 3 and 4 of the plan prepared, and that schools and educational centers will be used for this at the national level.
Cortizo explained that they will work with a structure similar to that used in electoral processes, with information by circuit and district.
"In phase 2A, adults over 60 years old, there are around 560,000, a little more, and when we go to the circuits, only one has more than 50,000 adults over 60 years of age, the rest have less," he said.
Between now and Monday, January 25, the arrival of the first 40,000 doses of
COVID-19
vaccine is expected in the country.
"We are with the team ready for when we are given the exact date. We are in the crucial week, because they announced to us that between the 18th and the 25th they were going to give us the date and we are waiting, however, as the President of the Republic, the teams are ready and three drills have been carried out precisely for when they give us that date to receive the
vaccines and quickly start the vaccination process at the national level, "said The Vice Minister of Health of Panama, Ivette Berrío .
Berrío said that the PanaVac19 team is ready to receive the
vaccine three days in advance or from one day to the next.
The president affirms that "we are prepared to receive it, and begin the process of vaccinating Phase 1, stage 1A. It will be announced that day or night the first batch of
vaccines will arrive in Panama, we have carried out three drills, all successful, especially the last, Saturday night. "
Regarding the beginning of the application process, the President reiterated that it is conditional on the delivery of
vaccines by the laboratories, "what does that mean, that we are not going to have, for example, 500 thousand doses in a week."
For the application process, a plan was presented divided into four phases, subdivided into stages, guaranteeing the inoculation of priority groups in the first phases. In addition, a digital form was enabled for the registration of people who wish to be vaccinated.
It should be noted that the first 40,000 doses of
vaccine that will arrive in the country will be from the
Pfizer BioNTech consortium .
In total, the country will acquire 5.5 million doses of
vaccines from
Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies, to be applied to about 3 million Panamanians, starting with a first phase of 450 thousand doses that guarantee the vaccination of 225 thousand people in the first quarter of the year.