The first shipment of over 300,000 Covid-19 vaccinations from the United States arrived in Costa Rica yesterday. It is part of the just over one million vaccines to be received in four parts over the coming weeks. The US Embassy confirms the vaccinations come from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
These doses are in addition to the 503,100 donated in July last year by the North American country, bringing to 1,503,900 vaccines donated by the U.S. government to Costa Rica.
“We are proud that we can donate these life-saving vaccines as part of our strong partnership with Costa Rica,” said U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Gloria Berbena.
“During Secretary Antony Blinken’s visit to Costa Rica last month, he discussed with President Alvarado collaboration to confront the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States has worked closely with Costa Rica since the very beginning of the pandemic to protect the health and safety of our citizens. Together we will overcome the pandemic.”
“I am deeply grateful to the people, the U.S. government and President Biden, for the donation. These doses represent a great boost in continuing to protect all the people who live in our country, especially in the face of the impact of the Omicron variant. The Government of the Republic continues working hard to obtain more doses,” said the President of the Republic, Carlos Alvarado.
With this donation, Costa Rica will reach 2,031,030 doses donated by the governments of the United States (1,503,900), Canada (319,200), Spain (69,600), Dominican Republic (56,800) and Austria (50,000). These are in addition to the 7,609,155 doses per purchase contract, bringing the country’s total number of doses received to 9,640,185.
President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado has asked for private entities to help the government in a renewed effort to get the boosters to as many Costa Ricans as quickly as possible. The Costa Rica government recently authorized private companies to import vaccinations.
While Covid-19 cases in Costa Rica were down recently, it is the first time in several weeks. More importantly, hospitalizations have reached a level that worries officials worry about their capability to handle more cases. They also fear that the recent Presidential elections will result in another spike in cases, not unlike what occurred after the recent holiday season.
