Panama Greenlights Funds to Buy AstraZeneca’s Planned Coronavirus Vaccine
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Panama’s government has authorized spending of US$4.3 million (R$21.5 million) to purchase 1.09 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine being developed by Britain’s AstraZeneca and Oxford University, the president’s office said on Wednesday.
The Central American nation has been working on multiple Covid-19 vaccine options for its population of 4.2 million, with President Laurentino Cortizo saying he wants to guarantee that each resident will have access to two doses.
Last week, the government approved spending US$48 million to buy 4 million doses of a vaccine being developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and its partner BioNTech of Germany.
The government in September also signed up for the World Health Organization-backed COVAX plan – a multilateral initiative running trials on several potential vaccines – from which it expects to receive some 1.3 million doses.
The country has been hard hit by the global pandemic, with nearly 150,000 confirmed infections and around 3,000 dead.
Source: Reuters
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