Another delivery of AstraZeneca Vaccine for Nicaragua as 97,920 doses of the drug arrived from Spain. The vaccines were flown into the Augusto Cesar Sandino International Airport in Managua by a UPS airplane.
This was the third delivery of vaccines from the COVAX initiative which now accounts for a total of 269,400 doses delivered to Nicaragua.
The Minister of Health; Dr. Martha Reyes was on hand for the delivery and confirmed that this donation would strengthen the voluntary vaccination campaign that has been running since April 2021. Reyes announced that in the coming weeks Nicaragua expects another 333,700 doses of vaccines from Spain.
Reyes closed her thanks with a reminder for all to continue to promote physical distancing, the use of a mask as well as hand hygiene and avoiding crowds.
Also on hand was the Ambassador of Spain, María del Mar Fernández-Palacios who noted that “the AstraZeneca Vaccine for Nicaragua that the government of Spain is making shows the solidarity commitment with the people of Nicaragua to share this vaccine, for the progress and the well-being of Nicaraguan citizens”.
Spain’s Commitment
As reported in Nica-Biz on July 29th 2021, this donation to Nicaragua is part of shipment of 750,000 doses being shared between Ecuador, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Peru. Back in April of this year, Spain’s Prime Minister; Pedro Sánchez had pledged more than 7.5 million vaccine doses to be redistributed to Latin America and the Caribbean.
In total, the Government of Spain has pledged to donate 22.5 million vaccines through the COVAX Initiative, which is coordinated by the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the Coalition for Innovation in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO). UNICEF provides the logistical support and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) help with the vaccine delivery around Nicaragua.
Spain’s “Solidarity Vaccination Program” was defined as having the main objective of guaranteeing fair, affordable and universal access to the vaccine for the global public good and also with the understanding that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic won’t happen until an acceptable level of immunity has been achieved throughout the world population.
It should also be mentioned that Spain works closely with the European Union (EU) within the framework of Team Europe which have so far contributed 2.47 Billion Euros to COVAX and committed to providing more than 500 million doses of vaccine.
