Costa Rica's Authorities have signed a contract with the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to acquire one million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in order to launch a national vaccination campaign.
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The lot would allow the supply of two doses to half a million Costa Ricans in the first quarter of 2021, if the COVID-19 vaccine candidate proves to be effective.
Costa Rica's health authorities expect to vaccinate over three million people in 2021, which represents about 60 percent of the population.
The country joined recently the World Health Organization's (WHO) Covax mechanism, which will allow equal access to vaccines for over 170 countries.
In early October, the government of President Carlos Alvarado signed also a purchase agreement with the U.S. company Pfizer and the German company BioNTech to inoculate 1.5 million people against COVID-19 in 2021.
The vaccines would be purchased through the National Emergency Fund in an exception manner allowed by the Emergency Law 8488.
"This important advance in the task of preparing ourselves to vaccinate the population when vaccines become available is the result of the great work that the National Vaccine Commission has been doing and reflects our primary commitment to protect the health and life of citizens from the pandemic, using all the means at our disposal." President Carlos Alvarado said.
According to the latest official report, Costa Rica has confirmed 121,000 COVID-19 and 1,527 related deaths.