Peru's Prime Minister Violeta Bermudez on Tuesday affirmed that the vaccination against COVID-19 will intensify as more doses arrive in the country.
According to the Cabinet chief, the pace of the vaccination process at this stage cannot be sustained in the future because the country is still receiving small batches of vaccine doses.
She said 50,000 doses a week are being received in March, while 200,000 vaccines a week will be available starting April, that is to say 800,000 a month, as the country receives other Astrazeneca batches containing just over a million doses.
"The intensity of the vaccination is going to increase as we receive more doses. If we receive more batches of vaccines, of course this effort will increase greatly (…). The pace will intensify as more vaccines arrive," she emphasized.
Bermudez also remarked that the private sector is participating in the vaccination process and reiterated that the Executive Branch is not against the purchase of vaccines by this segment, but the principal problem is that vaccines are sold only to governments because they are a scarce good.
She went on to say that, in a recent meeting with the private sector, the latter offered to make clinic's vaccinators available to the public sector when more doses arrive.
"There is a close collaboration between the public and private sectors," the high-ranking official pointed out.
When asked about the recent dengue cases, she said that the Ministry of Health (Minsa) has started working hard to eliminate the disease-transmitting mosquito and is conducting an educational campaign in communities.
Remarks were made on Tuesday morning after inspecting the facilities of the country's largest COVID-19 vaccination drive-thru site located at Monumental Stadium in Lima's Ate district.
(END) VVS/CVC/RMB
Published: 3/23/2021