Nearly 2,500,000 Bolivians have already been vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. | Photo: France 24

La Paz, June 30 (RHC)-- The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, announced that 1 million Janssen single-dose vaccines, produced by Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals, will arrive in that nation in the following weeks.

In a message on his Twitter account, Arce said that the immunizers will be received through the Covax mechanism promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).  The Bolivian leader stressed that "the diplomatic efforts of our government are yielding results in the fight against th pandemic."

This will be Bolivia's debut applying a single-dose anticovid vaccine, as so far it is immunizing its population with Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sputnik V sera, all double-dose.  The Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of the South American country, Benjamín Blanco, announced on Monday that 25,000 second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine are expected to be received by July 9th.

He also specified that another 600,000 doses of the Russian serum, conceived by the Gamaleya Center, will arrive in the country until next August (200,000 on July 18, and another 400,000 until August 15).

In recent weeks, media outlets have suggested the probable arrival of this batch of second doses out of date, which would be generating concern among the population.  In this regard, the Deputy Minister of Health, Alvaro Terrazas, declared this Tuesday that "they (Russia) are going to prioritize their national production, but they have said that they are going to comply with the contracts" signed with Bolivia.

Regarding vaccinations, the Bolivian Ministry of Health and Sports informed through its website that, as of this Monday, 1,823,110 people had received the first dose of some vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, while 676,525 people received the second dose and completed the vaccination process.

The Ministry also reported that over the past week, the number of infections decreased by 23 percent since the third wave of COVID-19 began last May.   According to Blanco, the country will soon be able to surpass 30 percent of the vaccinable population with at least one dose.  Bolivia's goal is to have 70 percent of its population vaccinated by December.