President Piñera welcomes the fact that over 5 million people in Chile have been vaccinated against COVID-19: “This is a great achievement by everyone in Chile.”

The President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, announced on Tuesday that Chile has already vaccinated over 5 million people against COVID-19. 

Before the announcement, the President met with representatives from the National Vaccination Plan and thanked them for their hard work with the mass vaccination rollout that got underway in Chile in January.

“On December 23, we shared with the people of Chile the goals that we had set as a country, because these aren’t the government’s vaccination goals but the vaccination goals of Chile as a whole. Vaccinating all the at-risk population - 5 million people - during this first quarter. This is a great achievement by everyone in Chile,” said the President. He was speaking from La Moneda Palace, where he was accompanied by the First Lady, Cecilia Morel, Heath Minister Enrique Paris, Foreign Affairs Minister Andrés Allamand and Science and Technology, Knowledge and Innovation Minister Andrés Couve.

The following people were also present: Public Health Undersecretary Paula Daza, Healthcare Networks Undersecretary Alberto Dougnac, International Economic Affairs Undersecretary Rodrigo Yáñez, the mayors representing the Chilean associations of municipalities - Mario Olavarría, Cristián Balmaceda and Sadi Melo -, the rector of the Universidad de Chile, Ennio Vivaldi, and the rector of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Ignacio Sánchez. 

During the official update at 11 am, the Health Minister was able to confirm that the foremost objective of the Vaccination Plan had already been achieved and that 5,011,517 people have now been vaccinated in Chile. 

“We’re all working tirelessly to meet the second commitment we made to the people of Chile: to vaccinate the entire target population - 15 million people - during the first half of this year,” concluded the President.