Venezuela's Health Minister Carlos Alvarado announced everything was ready to start the second stage of the Mass Vaccination Plan against COVID-19 on Saturday.
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In this stage, health workers will finish the vaccination of the high-risk groups and will begin vaccinating the rest of the population.
In order to comply with the pre-established schedule, 27 vaccination points have been set up throughout the country to avoid overcrowding and work overload in the hospital facilities that until today had taken the main burden of the vaccination plan.
This deployment will allow to vaccinate around 600,000 people per day. However, Alvarado assured that the vaccination points will grow as the second stage moves on.
After having started its Vaccination Plan last February 18, Venezuela plans to vaccinate 22 million people before the end of 2021 and achieve herd immunity.
The vaccination plan means a great effort for the Venezuelan government due to the devastating effects of the U.S. economic war and blockade, which has deprived Venezuelans of billions of dollars needed to fight against COVID-19.
However, the fact of having an organized, efficient, and proactive health system has made a difference to Venezuela during the pandemic. So far, the country had reported over 230,000 COVID-19 cases and 2,595 related deaths.