Paraguay’s vaccination pace still depends on further shipments of doses

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With some 14,000 deaths due to Covid, Paraguay continues to have its vaccination program limited to the low number of available doses, pending new shipments from abroad, such as the 1 million Pfizer doses donated by the U.S. government that were due to arrive on Tuesday night.

The second batch, following that of 1 million Pfizer doses earlier this month, has enabled the Ministry of Health to readjust a plan that has so far benefited some 1.8 million Paraguayans with at least one dose (25.76% of the total population).

The Pfizer doses will complete the program begun with the previous shipment, as part of a new schedule to begin this week with other vaccines, such as AstraZeneca and Moderna’s immunizers.

Director of the Expanded Immunization Program (PAI) Héctor Castro on Tuesday announced that 1.5 million people are expected to be immunized with both doses by the end of the month.

The 253,000 AstraZeneca doses donated by Spain are expected to be delivered before that date, to which doses negotiated by Health Minister Julio Borba should be added, following his visit to the U.S. last week where he signed a contract for the purchase of 2 million Moderna doses.

The thorn in the side of the portfolio’s vaccination campaign continues to be the Covax facility sponsored by the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), whose delayed shipments have sparked repeated criticism from the government, the latest on Monday by president Mario Abdo Benítez.

In statements to the media, the president said that the Covax “did not work” and that this led to a delay in the delivery of vaccines which prevented the Ministry from “initiating the process of mass vaccination.”

His government, which relied on the facility from the beginning, purchased some 4.3 million vaccines of which it has only received 304,800 in three batches.

Another drawback the Ministry is facing is the delay of the Russian Investment Fund’s Sputnik V vaccines, having been delivered only 400,000 doses in a first batch of 1 million purchased.

In this respect, Castro told the media on Monday that the Ministry will officially ask the Russian Fund for details on the expected delivery of the Sputnik V’s second batch, considering that on August 18 it will be three months since the first doses were administered.

Faced with these delays, donations such as those from the United States have boosted the vaccination campaign in the South American country, with a little more than 7 million inhabitants and the goal of vaccinating 4.7 million.

This fact, which has been criticized by some members of the opposition, was minimized on Monday by Abdo Benítez, who thanked the help of international cooperation.

“Some question the cooperation. It doesn’t matter to me where they come from, purchased, cooperation… The president every day only prioritizes the vaccination process because it saves lives,” the president said.

The government of Abdo Benítez of the conservative Colorado Party has gained political respite with these donations and with the decrease in Covid-19 cases, in which vaccination has played a key role, among other factors, according to the Ministry of Health.

The number of infections and deaths, which until last night stood at 14,701, has been declining for weeks and has relieved the country’s precarious health system, overwhelmed by hospitalizations.

This saturation and the shortage of medicines triggered massive citizen protests in the capital Asunción calling for the president’s resignation.