The Pfizer company informed us that 67,860 vaccines will be received in Panama tomorrow, Tuesday at midnight, this second delivery of Pfizer vaccine is the continuation of the total plan agreed with the pharmaceutical company, which was 3 million and that for the first quarter we They had confirmed 450 thousand that ends at the end of March, in the next six weeks we will have to receive the remainder of those 450 thousand, that is, 370 thousand vaccines," Mouynes explained.

She explained that each week Panama will be receiving confirmation of the batch, the number of vaccines and the exact day it will be arriving, and pointed out that Dr. Eduardo Ortega, advisor to the Center for Vaccine Research of Panama (Cevaxin), will have the responsibility to communicate this on a weekly basis.

The Minister of Health, Luis Francisco Sucre, said that with the arrival of this second batch, the vaccine distribution process will begin immediately between February 17 and 18 for their application in all health regions.

For her part, the Deputy Minister of Health, Ivette Berrío, announced that the planning established in the continuous vaccination strategy will continue, which consists of a four-phase plan , subdivided into stages. In other words, this batch is expected to culminate with Stage 1A, which includes health professionals in COVID areas of both public and private hospitals; and they will continue with Stage 1B, which includes non-prioritized health workers, people over 60 years of age with exceptional conditions, and people over 16 with disabilities.

On January 20, Panama received the first load of anticovid vaccines. There were 12,800 doses of the formula developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and that same day it began its application in front-line personnel in the pandemic.

Initially, and considering that Pfizer adjusted its production process, temporarily reducing global shipments of its vaccine, Panama would use half of the doses received and save the rest to guarantee the second dose of the first vaccinated at 21 days.

However, and due to a new recommendation from the WHO that indicates that the term for the application of the second dose of Pfizer can be extended up to six weeks, the use of reserve vaccines for the first application in priority health personnel was authorized.

In addition to Pfizer, Panama hopes to access the vaccines from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, through a bilateral mechanism and through a Covax mechanism.

During her appearance before the Plenary of the National Assembly, Chancellor Erika Mouynes said that the arrival of AstraZeneca vaccines is expected in March.

"One of the principles when organizing the vaccine portfolio was that there should be vaccines for everyone, in Panama's vaccine portfolio 5.5 million doses are included ... the delivery that we are confirming today is the Pfizer's second delivery, which is effectively 3 million doses within the 5.5 million portfolio, that is, Pfizer is the most important supplier within the portfolio, but there are indeed others such as AstraZeneca, the Covax portfolio, etc., but to say when they arrive, each of these must receive confirmation from them, as long as that information is received, it will be delivered in a timely manner," said Mouynes.

In addition, Health Minister Luis Sucre asked Russia for three million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine.