The Colombian government announced on Saturday that it is due to receive an initial order of 4.4 million doses of coronavirus vaccines from the World Health Organization-backed COVAX mechanism.
President Ivan Duque addressed the nation on television, explaining that this delivery would include a combination of vaccines developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as by AstraZeneca.
The deal includes 117,000 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine which are scheduled to arrive in the first quarter of the year, after which anywhere between 2.6 million and 4.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are expected to be delivered to the South American nation.
While 25% to 35% of the AstraZeneca vaccine doses are expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2021, the remaining 65% to 75% will be delivered in the following quarter.
“We have received information from the multilateral COVAX strategy indicating that Colombia has been ratified among 18 countries in which the administration of vaccines will begin,” President Duque declared during his live broadcast.
In addition to the doses that Colombia expects to receive via the REFILE-COVAX deal, the Andean nation also reached agreements with Moderna Inc and Sinovac Biotech, bringing the total number of vaccine doses expected to be received by Colombia to 35 million.
