Costa Rica surpasses 8.3 million vaccines imported 011422

- Photo via National Emergency Commission -

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Published on Friday, January 14, 2022
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Costa Rica has imported 8,356,125 vaccines against covid-19, according to the National Emergency Commission.

The most recent shipment arrived last night on a DHL cargo flight at the Juan Santamaría International Airport, containing 64,380 doses of Pfizer pediatric vaccines as part of the new 3.5 million purchase agreement to continue with the vaccination of children and booster shots. Of these 48,000 will be used to continue with the vaccination of children from 5 to 11 years old.

The country has already imported 6,002,165 Pfizer vaccines, completing the purchase made in 2020 to inoculate more than 3 million people.

Additionally to the already imported one million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines purchased for the treatment of more than 500,000 people.

The previous purchases are in addition to the 259,350 doses imported through the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), which is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to vaccines approved by the World Health Organization. These vaccines are part of the purchased 2,037,600 doses to provide treatment to more than one million people.

The country has received more than one million vaccines donated by friendly countries and biotechnology corporations. In November, the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca donated 31,400 doses.

In October, Costa Rica received three different donations of vaccines. Pfizer donated 130 doses of their vaccine. The Dominican Republic donated 56,800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines. And Austria donated 50,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines.

In September, Costa Rica received 69,600 doses of AstraZeneca donated by Spain. Plus an additional shipment of 319,200 AstraZeneca doses were donated by Canada.

In July, the U.S. donated 503,100 doses of Pfizer vaccines.

The government purchased half a million Pfizer vaccines from Spain that will be used for booster shots. According to the authorities, this vaccine shipment is scheduled to arrive sometime this month.

There are more than enough vaccines available to get Costa Rica to the goal of herd immunity by vaccinating 83% of the population. More than 4.2 million people are fully vaccinated. So far, 84% of that target or 3.5 million people have completed their two-dose treatment.

As of Thursday, according to the Health Ministry report, the country has had 7,401 covid-19 related deaths, approximately a 1.2% death rate.

The pandemic has killed more than 5.5 million people worldwide, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

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What should authorities do to speed up the vaccination campaign? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com