Colombia receives vaccines from Covax

The Pan-American Health Organisation announced on Monday that Colombia became the first country in the Americas to receive covid19 vaccines through the Covax Facility. It received 117,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

In a release, PAHO said the delivery is part of the First Wave initiative, a global pilot programme in which some countries receive early delivery of a limited number of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as part of their total allotted quota. It said more doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines are expected to arrive in coming weeks in the 36 countries participating in the mechanism in the region.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "Colombia, with support from Covax partners, has worked incredibly hard to be in a position to be able to receive its first wave of vaccines from Covax, and I pay tribute to all of those who have prepared diligently for this arrival. The arrival means that more health workers and high-risk populations can begin to be vaccinated. The covid19 pandemic can only end if vaccination occurs in an equitable way, and I am truly delighted to see vaccine doses in South America and other regions begin to be rolled out this week through Covax."

During an event to announce the arrival of the vaccines in Colombia, President Iván Duque said, "Today marks a very important milestone, today Covax makes its first delivery in the Western Hemisphere, and the first country to receive it is Colombia. We appreciate the joint, combined, and articulated work (with PAHO/WHO, Gavi, and Covax partners). "

Duque said that Colombia was committed to multilateralism, and this first delivery in the region showed that it is clear that Covax is active and works. He called on "all of us to accelerate the distribution of vaccines through Covax in the Americas."

PAHO said the doses vaccine that arrived at El Dorado International Airport in Bogota, the nation's capital, mark the beginning of the deployment of Covax-procured vaccines in Latin America and come about one year after the first case was detected in the region.

PAHO director Carissa F. Etienne said the arrival of these first doses in Colombia through the Covax Facility is an encouraging step in the fight against this virus in the Americas.

“In a context where the availability of doses is still very limited, PAHO will continue to support the great efforts of countries in the region to obtain as many vaccines as soon as possible."

PAHO said with more than 50 million confirmed cases and more than 1.2 million deaths, countries of the Americas have experienced the worst impact of the pandemic. The region will need to immunise approximately 700 million people to control the pandemic.

It said following the recent WHO emergency use listing of two versions of AstraZeneca/Oxford's covid19 vaccine, all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to begin receiving the first doses of these vaccines through Covax starting in March, if all necessary conditions are met. These vaccines are produced by AstraZeneca-SK Bioscience (Republic of Korea) and the Serum Institute of India.