Hundreds of Nicaraguans crossed the border of their country with Honduras, where they formed long lines in front of medical brigades that were applying the vaccine against Covid-19, health sources reported last week.
For several days, a team from the Honduran Ministry of Health traveled to the border points of El Triunfo and La Fraternidad, some 100 km south of Tegucigalpa, “to immunize the Nicaraguan population that is massively seeking the application of the first dose” of the vaccine against Covid-19, said a statement from the organization.
It added that “people 12 years and older are being vaccinated with (…) Moderna and pregnant women with Pfizer, with the aim of reducing the incidence of serious cases and deaths in the neighboring country.”
“There are 4,000 first doses that are available daily for foreigners who go to be vaccinated,” the Ministry of Health detailed, in a vaccination campaign that will last until November 6. The team will attend to Nicaraguans from Monday to Friday; on weekends Nicaraguans will be able to go to the community of Choluteca for their shots.
Honduran authorities added that a second dose is guaranteed “within 28 days.”
President Juan Orlando Hernández also announced last week a loan of 100,000 doses of vaccines to Nicaragua in an act of “solidarity.”
“I made the decision with the team of the Ministry of Health to provide 100,000 doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccines to Nicaragua because they do not have it. We must be grateful to those who have helped us,” said the president.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) places Nicaragua among the six countries on the continent with the lowest vaccination coverage.
The country, with 6.5 million inhabitants, reports to date 16,422 infections and 206 deaths, but a network of independent doctors from the Citizen Observatory has tallied at least 30,809 cases and 5,832 deaths with symptoms of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Honduras, with almost 10 million inhabitants, has immunized about 40% of its population with vaccines purchased or donated by the Covax mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO) and some private organizations.
Honduras has registered 373,838 cases and 10,182 deaths from the pandemic.
