Chile welcomes second shipment of Sinovac vaccines

Santiago, Feb 3 (IANS) The Chilean government received a second shipment of nearly two million vaccines developed by Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech, which will be used to begin the mass vaccination in Chile, scheduled to start on Wednesday.Chilean Deputy Health Minister Paula Daza said at a press conference that the arrival of the two shipments of Sinovac vaccine CoronaVac will allow for the vaccination of about four million people in February, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday."There is work and logistics that are being done for vaccinations in the field with municipality representatives," she said.Chilean President Sebastian Pinera wrote on Twitter after the arrival of the second shipment of the Chinese vaccine that mass vaccination will begin on Wednesday, starting with high-risk groups.Chile on Thursday received a shipment of nearly two million Sinovac vaccines as the South American country is preparing for mass vaccination campaign against Covid-19.Chile reported on Monday 3,779 Covid-19 cases and 85 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total caseload to 730,888 confirmed cases and 18,537 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
--IANS int/