Andina

Peru's Health Min: 700,000 Pfizer vaccine doses coming this weekend

Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

18:03 | Lima, May. 3.

Peru will receive two shipments totaling 700,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine this weekend, which will broaden the country's capacity to vaccinate more Peruvians, Health Minister Oscar Ugarte announced on Monday.

He said that the first batch of 350,000 doses will arrive on May 7, while the remaining 350,000 doses will arrive on May 8.

"Peru is going to receive 700,000 doses per week, that is to say, 3.5 times more than what it has been receiving, and this will allow us to further expand the vaccination coverage," the minister stated.

He explained that, unlike April, when the Pfizer vaccine shipments arrived every Wednesday, the doses in May will arrive on Friday and Saturday.

Elderly people vaccinated 

Ugarte reported that, between April 30 and May 2, more than 166,000 elderly people have been vaccinated nationwide, of whom 122,273 were inoculated in Lima and Callao, that is, 60% more than the planned figure.

"We have increased our capacity in terms of the number of vaccination brigades we can deploy. We can intensify the work and, therefore, vaccinate a greater number of people per hour and day," he emphasized.

Sinopharm

On the other hand, Deputy Public Health Minister Gustavo Rosell reported that the research conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that the Sinopharm vaccine is 90% effective.

"This guarantees the protection that we are precisely looking for and, as the Minister (of Health) has announced, half a million doses are entering the country, thus guaranteeing they will help protect the population that has not been vaccinated yet," he noted.

(END) LIT/RMB


Published: 5/3/2021