By Aislinn Laing
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – The first 10,000 doses of a 10-million order of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine reached Chile on Thursday with inoculations of health workers in the hardest hit sectors to begin immediately.
Chile is the first South American country to begin vaccinating against COVID. Mexico received 3,000 doses of the vaccine on Wednesday, Costa Rica was to receive Pfizer doses on Thursday while Argentina was expecting the first doses of Russia’s Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine on the same day.
The doses arrived at Santiago airport from Pfizer’s manufacturing hub, the town of Puurs in Belgium, just before 7 a.m. local time (1000 GMT) on Christmas Eve, according to a statement from the presidency.
The consignment consisted of two small boxes each packed with 23 kg (50 pounds) of dry ice to keep them at the ultra-cold temperatures required, and 13 kg of vaccine-loaded syringes.
The boxes were transferred by police helicopter to a logistics centre in the capital Santiago, with vaccinations due to begin later in the morning.
Chile is among the countries in Latin America to have struck the most bilateral deals with pharmaceutical companies, including deals with AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac as well as the global vaccine distribution scheme COVAX.
Authorities aim to inoculate 80% of Chile’s 19 million population by the first half of next year.
The two-dose Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine is be issued to health workers in hospitals in Santiago on Thursday. Health workers in the southern provinces of Araucania, BioBio and Magallanes will begin to be inoculated on Christmas Day.
President Sebastian Pinera said it was a “happy moment” after a rough year in Chile, which has been hit by intense, sometimes violent anti-government protests that began in October 2019, then the coronavirus outbreak in March and its associated economic fall-out.
Pinera said the vaccine was “free and voluntary”, and approved by both local and international health regulators. “When someone vaccinates themselves they are protecting not just themselves but also protecting their loved ones, their community and the country,” he said.
(Reporting by Aislinn Laing; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
