Guatemala's Health Minister Amelia Flores on Tuesday announced the purchase of 4 million doses of the Russia-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to face the pandemic's second wave in her country.
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The first batch of vaccines should arrive in the second week of March, which will allow starting the vaccination in the Central American country.
Flores also commented that the Russian government donated another Sputnik V batch, but the amount of doses is unknown so far.
Besides being in negotiations with the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, Guatemala has already agreed to purchase 7 million doses from Pfizer, which said that its first batch will be delivered in April.
Guatemala will also receive this week a donation of 5.000 Moderna COVID-19 doses from Israel to immunize 2.500 doctors.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Pedro Brolo criticized the inequity in the global vaccine distribution and regretted the lack of effectiveness of the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility (COVAX), from which Guatemala has not received a single vaccine despite having paid in advance.
As of Thursday morning, Guatemala had reported 172.764 COVID-19 cases and 6.327 related deaths.