Maduro expects mass vaccination in Venezuela by August

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, said this Tuesday that he expects an “assertion” of the vaccination against Covid-19 in Venezuela in May and the “massification” in June, July, and August, the month in which he expects to have reached herd immunity, that is to say, that 70% of the population has been inoculated.

After infection rates shot up in March and April as a consequence, according to the Government, of the arrival of the Brazilian variant in the country, in the last few days, the curve stabilized, which – Maduro pointed out – is “high but flat”.

To achieve the objective of mass immunity, the Executive approved the “offensive plan” with the allocation of resources for vaccines which -he assured- are “being obtained from different sources in the world”, without specifying the origin of all those needed to reach the goal set.

Initially, the President expected that the mass vaccination would take place in April. Still, according to the Government, not enough vaccines arrived in the country due to the sanctions maintained by the United States and the European Union against the country and which prevent the availability of funds that Venezuela has abroad.

The Executive reported, through the state media, the arrival of 930,000 doses of vaccines distributed in several trips and dates, but last Monday, the Minister of Health, Carlos Alvarado, pointed out that the country has 1,480,000 units, without knowing at what moment the 550,000 that make the difference were received or where they come from.

The figure is insufficient to vaccinate 70% of a population of about 30 million in any case.

Since the first vaccines began to arrive in the country, the opposition and medical organizations, and other social sectors demanded from the Government information on the vaccination plan established and the number of people already immunized.

However, to date, these data are unknown, as well as the progress of immunization in prioritized sectors, among which were considered, in the first place, the members of Parliament and health personnel, who continue to complain of not receiving the necessary doses.