JAN. 31, 2021

Second shipment of almost 2 million Sinovac vaccines arrive to Chile

With this shipment, Chile has almost 4 million doses which will allow mass vaccination against COVID-19 to begin on Wednesday, February 3.

This afternoon, the second shipment of 1,917,663 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine from the Sinovac Laboratory reached the Arturo Merino Benítez Airport in Santiago.  These are in addition to those received last Thursday by President Sebastián Piñera and Health Minister Enrique Paris.  Sinovac doses will continue arriving until reaching a total of 10,098,000 doses in March.  

On this occasion, the undersecretaries of Public Health, Paula Daza, of Healthcare Networks, Alberto Dougnac and of International Economic Relations, Rodrigo Yáñez were at the Santiago Airport to receive the nearly 2 million doses that will allow for mass vaccination to begin on Wednesday, February 3.

To this end, Undersecretary Daza indicated that “due to negotiations that President Piñera started between April and May, we have received more than 3,900,000 CoronaVac vaccines, which will allow us to advance to the mass phase of the COVID-19 Vaccination Plan.  This is because the Public Health Institute (ISP) authorized its use for adults over the age of 18, as well as confirming it safe and effective for people over 60.” 

As a result of this plan, the inoculation of health personnel will be completed by next week and will continue with the vaccination of senior citizens, public officials and personnel from other essential groups who are responsible for the continuity of civil society work.  

Undersecretary Dougnac explained that the Health Ministry, together with the National Health Service System (CENEBAST), the Transportation Ministry and other public and private institutions, have planned out the logistics for the arrival and distribution of the Sinovac vaccines.  “The distribution plan for the first Sinovac shipment started to be implemented yesterday, January 30, at 8:30 a.m. with departures by land and air.  The first batch of doses was distributed among the 26 Vaccine and Immunoglobulin Depots (DVI) located within the 16 regions of the country,” the Undersecretary said. 

At the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Undersecretary Yáñez said to be very proud to be working in conjunction with the Health Ministry and the Science Ministry and announced that “there are three shipments from Sinovac scheduled to arrive during the second two weeks of February and the first few days of March. And we hope that the shipments of Pfizer vaccines will also resume during the second two weeks of February.” 

He also added that this is “an important milestone that we are reaching. We are going to continue working tirelessly, day and night, so that the Chilean people can be rest assured they will have access to a free, universal and voluntary vaccine against COVID-19.”

In conclusion, the Public Health Undersecretary said that this vaccine, just like all of the others, will allow us to fight the pandemic in the best way possible, but also made a public plea to not forget that COVID-19 is still affecting our nation, and that we all need to continue with self-care measures like the frequent washing of hands, the correct use of face masks, physical distancing and avoiding crowds.