Venezuela this week will receive the first coronavirus vaccines obtained via COVAX, President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday, following months of stalled attempts to obtain inoculations through the global vaccine program.
By Reuters
Sep 5, 2021
The South American nation has been inoculating its population with doses acquired directly from China and Russia, following months of delays in making payments to COVAX that Maduro has attributed to U.S. sanctions.
“This week, the first vaccines from the COVAX mechanism will arrive,” Maduro said in an interview with state television. “We hope the COVAX mechanism accelerates, such that in October they deliver the vaccines for an estimated 6 million Venezuelans.”
He added that Venezuela this week will also begin receiving shipments of the second dose of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, following complaints from citizens that they had only been able to obtain the first.
Maduro’s government for months said it had been unable to pay for the vaccines due to U.S. sanctions meant to force him from power, but in April announced it had deposited most of the funds in a Swiss bank account.
Venezuela’s government is currently holding talks in México with opposition leaders to resolve a long-running political standoff and ease the country’s humanitarian crisis caused by an economic collapse that has worsened under U.S. sanctions.
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