WHO to send 5 million COVID vaccines to Venezuela

By Jorge Jraissati

CARACAS, Venezuela (AA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) will send 5 million coronavirus vaccines to Venezuela in July, the country’s president announced Sunday.

Nicolas Maduro said in a nationally televised broadcast that the WHO will deliver the vaccines through its COVAX facility, a system to provide vaccines to developing nations.

Maduro noted that he has requested the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through the COVAX system.

He added that his government has already made two payments to the COVAX system, without offering further details.

"We are waiting for the schedule that has been discussed with the COVAX system to be fulfilled…I have faith that it will be fulfilled,” he said.

Maduro’s comments came hours after Venezuela received 500,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.

So far, Venezuela has received about 3.2 million vaccine doses, all of them from Russia and China.

Over the weekend, the Venezuelan government announced the beginning of a massive vaccination campaign throughout the country.

Overall, according to the Venezuelan government, the country has recorded roughly 230,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,595 deaths.

Of these cases, Maduro said they are analyzing five cases in the bordering state of Apure. He said there are reasons to believe that these cases are of the Indian variant.

"We are investigating. It seems that from Colombia, through Apure, the mutant variant from India entered," he said.