Amid scramble for COVID-19 vaccine, Latin America turns to Russia

Bolivian President Luis Arce looks on as a health care worker receives a dose of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine at the Hospital del Norte in El Alto, on outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, in January.

LA PAZ, Bolivia –

As Bolivia struggled late last year to secure deals with large drug firms to supply COVID-19 vaccines, the incoming president, Luis Arce, turned to Russia for help.

By the end of December, Bolivia clinched its first major COVID-19 vaccine deal, with enough shots for some 20% of the population. The first Sputnik V doses arrived in the country in late January, just as virus cases were spiking.

“It was a really marathon task,” said Bolivian trade minister Benjamin Blanco of the procurement quest, but Russia’s political will made it possible. Western vaccine makers “told us developing countries that we had to wait until June.” He didn’t name names.

Source link : https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/03/02/world/latin-america-russia-vaccines/

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Publish date : 2021-03-02 03:00:00

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