Spain’s donation of nearly 70,000 Covid-19 vaccines to Costa Rica will arrive Sunday, the government announced.
Costa Rica will receive 69,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19 from Spain through the multilateral COVAX mechanism COVAX.
“We are immensely grateful for this support from the Government and the Spanish people that drives us in the direction we have worked since the pandemic began,” said President Carlos Alvarado.
“This donation is the result of the hard work and tenacity of the diplomatic work of the Foreign Ministry and is an expression of solidarity that reaffirms the solid bonds of friendship and cooperation between both countries.”
The donation was first announced in August.
This will represent the third batch of Covid-19 vaccine donations received by Costa Rica. In July, the United States government gifted 500,000 Pfizer/BioNTech doses, a shipment which helped the country launch mass-vaccination campaigns and expand vaccine access to nearly all adults.
Costa Rica this week also expects to receive 319,000 AstraZeneca doses in a donation from the Canadian government.
Costa Rica has imported more than 5.4 million doses since December 2020. The majority were purchased directly through Pfizer, with 775,000 received from a contract with AstraZeneca. Some 173,000 were delivered through COVAX, an initiative to promote global vaccine equity, while the remaining 503,100 correspond to the U.S. donation.
The latest available data indicate Costa Rica has administered 4.2 million doses across 3 million people. The country’s population is about 5.1 million people.
The feature photo shows Costa Rican authorities receiving AstraZeneca vaccines earlier this year.
