Costa Rica resumes vaccination rhythm against covid-19 this Thursday

They vaccinate the oldest man in Costa Rica 3:39

(CNN Spanish) ––

Costa Rica announced that it will resume the rate of vaccination against covid-19 starting this Thursday, after receiving the largest delivery of vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer on Tuesday night.

According to the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, the institution in charge of health and social security in the country, there are 79,560 doses that arrived.

This batch of vaccines will be applied by 80% to group two of five priorities established by the National Commission for Vaccination and Epidemiology.

These are people over 58 years of age with priority for the longest-lived.

The other 20% will be to follow the vaccination of group one.

In the first group are workers from long-stay centers and elderly people who live in these centers, health workers and first responders, such as firefighters and police officers.

The country received the first vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech on December 23 last year and began the vaccination campaign a day later.

Delivery of doses was suspended on January 21.

However, the inoculation continued with those who had received the first dose.

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President Carlos Alvarado said the resumption of vaccine delivery "fuels hope" in the fight against the virus.

Costa Rica signed an agreement with Pfizer and Biontech to receive three million doses of its vaccine and apply them in two doses to 1.5 million people.

Another agreement reached with AstraZeneca will allow 500,000 people to receive two doses.

According to the National Emergency Commission, the first shipments from AstraZeneca will arrive in May.

Through the COVAX-Facility mechanism, coordinated by the WHO, the country is expected to access two million doses for one million people.

The press office of the Ministry of Health told CNN that in this case there is no exact date for his arrival either.

However, he specified that it would be in the first semester of 2021.

With the three agreements, Costa Rica hopes to immunize three million people with the covid-19 vaccine.

A figure that represents 60% of the population.

According to the authorities, it is intended to cover 80% of people over 18 years of age.

The vaccination will take place throughout 2021.

This Monday, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund reported that 42,553 people from different areas of the country have received the two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.

Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Vaccination