At the moment, it is planned to buy 11 million doses for next year.
Ecuador is one of the six countries in America that signed an agreement with the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to purchase 5 million doses of vaccines against the coronavirus. This drug is advised by the University of Oxford and is made from a weakened version of an adenovirus that blocks the SARS-CoV-2 protein.
The Ministry of Health is also negotiating with other pharmaceutical companies to purchase vaccines to cover around 65% of the population. For this, the country will invest about USD 200 million, according to the Vice Minister of Governance and Health Surveillance, Xavier Solórzano.
“It is important to consider that it is a worthy investment, but, above all, beyond the economic, the probability of having a tool that saves lives is priceless, because life is priceless.”
In the same way, the official indicated that Ecuador has already defined its contribution and participation in the Covax Facility mechanism, a global initiative that promotes equitable access to vaccines to all countries regardless of their economy and that it has a portfolio of vaccine options .
Thanks to this, the country would receive seven million vaccines, including those from AstraZeneca. On the other hand, Ecuador made an agreement with Pfizer and BioNTech to receive two million doses of its vaccine, and a negotiation meeting was also held with Covaxx, a US company with which two million doses will also be obtained.
In total, the country would import around 11 million doses to combat Covid-19. This process can only be done by the Ministry of Health, since private companies and parish, provincial and municipal governments are not authorized to make these purchases.
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