RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Monday, July 12, Paraguay surpassed the milestone of 1 million people vaccinated with at least one dose against Covid-19, representing approximately 14.10% of its population, after the disease has claimed some 14,000 lives in the country of just over 7 million inhabitants, reported Health Minister Julio Borba.
The announcement was later mentioned on social networks by president Mario Abdo Benítez, away from Paraguay since traveling to Miami (Florida, USA) on Friday with first lady Silvana López Moreira who lost several relatives in the collapse of an apartment building there.
“Today we have surpassed 1 million Paraguayans vaccinated. Together we will overcome this,” the president said.
In his appearance, Minister Borba pointed out that 70,000 people were vaccinated on Monday, a daily record. “This is very important for us after the sacrifices made by healthcare workers,” Borba said about these figures.
He added that more vaccine shipments would reach the country during the week – although he would not specify dates – and thus allow lowering the minimum age for vaccination to 18.
Earlier, Health Ministry officials received at Asunción’s international airport an Argentine airline plane carrying 100,000 Sputnik V vaccines, part of the 1 million acquired from the Russian Investment Fund.
With this delivery, around 400,000 Sputnik V doses have reached Paraguay since the purchase contract signed last January. The shipment is the second to reach the country, after 1 million Pfizer doses donated by the United States were delivered on Friday, the largest to date.
The U.S. shipment reactivated a vaccination campaign that until then had focused on healthcare personnel and people over 50 years of age, and which on Monday focused exclusively on priority workers, such as firefighters, teachers and police officers.
The Ministry expects to reach 2 million vaccinated by September, with a target of 4 million people.
The new vaccine shipment comes at a time when the country is registering a drop in the daily number of deaths, which weeks ago exceeded 100, as well as in the number of infections.
Paraguay now totals 13,918 deaths, 393,333 recovered and 437,719 infections since March 2020, when the first case was detected, according to the Ministry of Health’s report on Sunday evening.