On Wednesday, 17 March a China Cargo plane arrived with 1 million Sinovac/Coronavac vials. Vice President Raquel Peña and Public Health Minister Daniel Rivera received the shipment at the Las Americas International Airport. The vaccines are essential for the aggressive vaccination strategy undertaken by the Abinader administration.
In a tweet, President Luis Abinader sent thanks to the Chinese government and its President Xi Jinping for authorizing the export permit for the one million vaccines and for the donating of another 50,000 so the country could continue its vaccination plan.
Most of the shipment will be used for the second dose of the first batch of Sinovac vaccines that have already been applied, primarily to those 70+ and health care workers. The application of the second dose begins on 24 March.
The Dominican Republic is unfolding the most aggressive vaccine campaign in the Caribbean and Central American region. After pharmaceutical companies Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, UK-Oxford-AstraZeneca, and the WHO-Covax facility failed to deliver the pre-paid vaccines, the Dominican government went looking for the vaccines around the world. China had stocks available for sale.
The government also purchased a first shipments of Covishield from the India Serum Institute (AstraZeneca) that were used to vaccinate the Covid-19 front line health care workers and hospital staff.
The Vice President announced that the vaccine rollout will now continue on Thursday. The vaccination rollout had been suspended as the country awaited the shipment. The government seeks to complete the first phase where seniors over 68+ are priority and all pre-school and elementary school teachers. The vaccinations will continue with those over 60, the military and the police. The director of the Police, Edward Sánchez, was also at Las Americas International Airport on Wednesday to receive the new shipment.
China donated 50,000 Sinopharm vaccines and 51,200 syringes that arrived with the shipment on Wednesday.
So far, more than 700,000 persons have been vaccinated in the Dominican Republic since the implementation of the National Vaccination Plan began on 16 February 2021.
Those who qualify for this first phase are asked to make appointments online at VacunateRD or by calling *822.
The Abinader administration reports it has paid US$19 for each dose of the Sinovac vaccine or US$19 million for the shipment.
The Dominican Republic has imported 1,818,000 doses of vaccine from China so far.
Chinese ambassador Zhang Run was at the airport for the arrival of the shipment.
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Presidency
N Digital
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
El Caribe
El Nuevo Diario
18 March 2021