Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez held a working meeting with PAHO´s Representative in Venezuela Federico Gerardo De Cosio, during which they addressed the delay of Covid-19 vaccine doses already canceled by the Venezuelan government.

In recent statements, President Nicolás Maduro pointed out that Covax mechanism owes a debt to Venezuela, since in April it canceled the amounts established to be included into the global program for the distribution of anti-Covid-19 vaccines.

Venezuelan health authorities started off the country´s vaccination process for healthcare personnel and other priority sectors in February 2021, thanks to agreements reached with Russia and China for the purchase of Sputnik V and Sinopharm vaccine doses, respectively.

In order to vaccinate at least 70% of Venezuelans this year, the Government intensified the immunization campaign last week, after recent arrival of 1,300,000 vaccine doses from China and another batch sent by Moscow.

pgh/Pll/msm / wup