A truck carrying the first batch of 300,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses on Monday afternoon left the warehouse of the
National Center for Supply of Strategic Resources in Health (Cenares) to be distributed to hospitals in Lima and Callao.
The heavy cargo unit left the warehouse at 2:14 p.m., with a strong police and military presence in place, and escorted by a large convoy of law enforcement units to the hospitals set to receive this first batch.
Upon departure, Comptroller General Nelson Shack remarked that this first load carried 15,000 doses and that two additional trucks will carry —each one— a similar quantity over the course of the afternoon, for their distribution to 12 hospitals in Lima and Callao.
For his part, Lima Police Region Chief General Jorge Luis Angulo reported that the first hospital to receive the vaccines was Arzobispo Loayza in Downtown Lima, followed by San Bartolome and Dos de Mayo.
Noting that all the hospitals will receive police protection, Angulo stated that another group of vaccines will be distributed to different regions across Peru —by air and land— on Tuesday starting at 10 a.m.
The second truck left Callao-based Cenares at 3:00 p.m. —with a large police and military presence— to the headquarters of the Regional Health Directorate (Diresa) in Callao, Sabogal and Santa Rosa Hospitals, as well as the National Institute of Child Health (INSN) in Lima's Breña district.
Vaccination Team Coordinator at the
Ministry of Health (Minsa) Nancy Olivares explained that this first batch is aimed at health care workers in critical areas of intensive care units (ICUs), emergency units, and the personnel involved in the care of COVID-19 patients, as they are more exposed to the virus.
The deployment of vaccines in 35 distribution points at regional level begins on February 9 and 10.
(END) LIT/RMB
Published: 2/8/2021