Tegucigalpa, June 27 (EFE). – Honduras, which has recorded about 7,000 deaths in the 16 months of the pandemic, will make significant progress in its COVID-19 vaccination process with the 1.5 million doses of Moderna it received on Sunday, donated by the United States states.
The donation was delivered by Chargé d’Affairs of the United States Embassy, Colin A. Hoi, in the presence of Pidad Huerta, representative of the Pan American Health Organization in Honduras, and Minister of Health, Alba Consuelo Flores, among other officials.
Hernandez expressed that he is “a staunch believer in pluralism and that although many have criticized the reliance on Covax (a mechanism that leads the World Health Organization), perhaps the product of desperation, today with the donation of 1.5 million doses from a portion of the United States I can confirm that there is greater certainty in this mechanism , with a donation that will be used to save lives.”
He added that there are likely to be “important surprises in the coming days” as a result of his recent trip to Germany, Israel and Spain, related to the issue of vaccines that Honduras needs.
Of the 9.5 million people in Honduras, the government expects 81% to be vaccinated, a task that could take this year and part of next, due to slow progress in immunization.
With doses donated by the United States, Honduras will exceed at least one million vaccines by the end of July and the beginning of August, health authorities have predicted.
750,000 people will be vaccinated with the US donation
“There is widespread and continuous vaccination in the country and from now on we should have a greater capacity to vaccinate, which is why the commander of the armed forces (Tito Livio Moreno) has already issued an order to put all nurses in the army,” the president said.
In addition, he asked the Minister of Health to appoint more nurses and to integrate retired women through negotiations so that the vaccination process could be made sustainable and expedited.
“This is a very special day because Honduras is one of the first countries to receive a donation of 1.5 million doses of vaccines from the United States,” the Chargé d’Affairs at the US diplomatic mission in Tegucigalpa noted.
The representative of the Pan American Health Organization indicated that Honduras received the fifth batch of vaccine doses sent by the Kovacs Mechanism, this time 1.5 million doses donated by the United States, indicating that “Honduras is a priority country.”
The state-run National Risk Management System (Sinager) reported Sunday that the country has recorded 6,922 deaths from COVID-19 and 260,331 infections since March 2020, when the pandemic began to spread.
Honduras has also received vaccine donations from Israel, El Salvador, Mexico and the Covax Mechanism.
Sputnik V and Pfizer vaccines purchased by the Honduran government, and AstraZeneca, acquired by the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS), have been added.
According to the Tegucigalpa government, Honduras has globally committed to more than 14 million doses of vaccines to immunize its population.
