RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Ecuador is fine tuning its vaccination plan against the COVID-19 pandemic, which it expects to launch in the first three months of 2021, Deputy Health Minister Xavier Solorzano said on Wednesday, December 11th.
“Every day we are further developing the vaccination plan. We have the support of the private sector … we have the participation of academics and, together, we are forging the plan,” Solorzano said in an interview with a local television station.
An initial batch of vaccines developed by U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer in partnership with the German laboratory BioNTech is expected to arrive in the South American country in the first quarter of 2021.
“We have to be ready when the vaccine arrives,” said the official, noting the immunization process entails distributing the doses and training personnel to apply them, among other things.
Close to 200,000 people in Ecuador have tested positive for COVID-19 and 9,295 people have died from the disease, the health ministry said.
Another 4,519 deaths are suspected of having been caused by the virus, but have not been confirmed, according to the ministry.