Officials receive 2 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 from Sinovac laboratory
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This shipment ensures a successful vaccination campaign can be mounted throughout Chile.
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To date, more than 8.3 million doses have been imported making this a record number for the National Immunization Plan.
This morning, the Minister Secretary General of the Government, Jaime Bellolio, Transport and Telecommunications Minister Gloria Hutt, Public Health Undersecretary Paula Daza and Healthcare Networks Undersecretary Alberto Dougnac received the fourth large-scale shipment of 2 million COVID-19 vaccines from the Sinovac laboratory.
The officials highlighted the importance of this delivery, the tenth shipment of COVID-19 vaccines to date consisting of around 2 million doses, making it the largest shipment so far to enter Chile.
Public Health Undersecretary Paula Daza said, “The 8.3 million vaccines that have arrived in Chile since the beginning of the vaccination campaign will allow us to keep to the set schedule, ensuring that we will have the second doses that we promised to deliver.”
Minister Jaime Bellolio underscored the coordination between the Health, Foreign Affairs, Science and Transportation Ministries along with other key stakeholders and called on the public to remain calm, stressing that “we’ve secured enough vaccine doses for the entire population. We will continue to do this coordinated, cross-cutting work to ensure that Chile is able to face the challenges that the future holds.”
Transport and Telecommunications Minister Gloria Hutt added that the ministry has handled an important logistics operation. “These vaccines are delivered and distributed using commercial flights within Chile to the regional capitals and from there to the municipalities and smaller communities. This network has allowed us to save valuable time and arrive at the communities,” she said.
“We are really proud of these numbers, that have allowed Chile to vaccinate over 3.2 million people, 75% of whom are over the age of 65,” the Public Health Undersecretary said, noting that the goal is to vaccinate 5 million people during the first quarter and a total of 15 million people during the first half of the year.
Also, the officials called again on the public to go to the vaccination centers on the pre-established dates as set out in the vaccination calendar. They also emphasized the importance of following all health and personal safety measures such as frequent hand washing, adequate mask use and keeping social distance.