Honduras to Receive Vaccine Against COVID-19 in April - Authorities

MANAGUA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th December, 2020) Honduras will receive the first batch of the vaccine against COVID-19 produced by AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company on April 21, Honduran Council for Private Enterprise (COHEP) manager of trade police Helui Castillo said.

COHEP granted 85 million lempiras ($3.52 million) to the Honduran Social Security Institute to purchase 1.4 million doses of the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca. This amount represents 20 percent of the total cost of the first vaccine batch.

"Then we will grant a 40 percent [for vaccine's purchase] payment that will be made after the vaccine is approved, it is about $3.

3 million; the vaccines will come to the country around April 21 of the next year," Castillo told the local media on Sunday.

Castillo added that the country also participates in another program for vaccine access through the COVAX Facility, the World Health Organization's global vaccine against COVID-19 initiative. The doses can arrive in Honduras through this mechanism in the second half of 2021.

To date, Honduras has registered over 119,000 positive COVID-19 cases, including almost 56,000 patients who have recovered and 3,065 people who have died.