Gerardo Alfaro, representative of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) confirmed this Saturday to Telemetro that Panama will receive, through the COVAX mechanism, between 216,000 and 364,000 doses of the AztraZeneca / Oxford vaccine in mid-February.
Regarding this, the health authorities indicated that with the arrival of the second shipment of the
Pfizer vaccine, the second doses will be completed for health personnel already vaccinated and with
AstraZeneca the first-line health professionals who take care of the
COVID-19 patients.
However, the health authorities assure that they have not confirmed the number of doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine that will arrive in the country between February and March.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Erika Mouynes had confirmed on Friday, January 29, that the next batch of
vaccines against
COVID-19 from the pharmaceutical company
Pfizer would be arriving in the country in the week of February 15.
Progressively, the US pharmaceutical company will be sending other batches of the
vaccine every week until the 450,000 agreed doses are met, declared the Chancellor.
So far, Panama has only received a first batch with 12,840 doses of
Pfizer's
vaccine against the
coronavirus on January 20, and later began the vaccination campaign in health personnel who care for patients with
COVID-19.
Regarding the British
vaccine, it should be noted that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) recommended this Friday, January 29, the authorization of the
AstraZeneca vaccine against
COVID-19 for those over 18 years of age, while concern grows around the world about the slowness in vaccination and the new variants of the
coronavirus.
Panama at the beginning of January 2021 had already made payments to three
vaccine suppliers such as
Pfizer,
AstraZeneca and
COVAX, according to the Minister of Health, Luis
Sucre.