Costa Rica received a new batch of 103,660 vaccine doses against SARS-CoV-2. This shipment is an additional 82,600 pediatric doses (the largest number of pediatric doses received so far) that will protect children as they head back to school. In addition, 21,060 vaccine doses came in for children over 12 years of age.
According to the president of the National Commission for Risk Prevention and Emergency Attention (CNE) “this quantity of pediatric vaccines received is extremely important before the beginning of the school year, since it will allow us to move forward with the immunization of our citizens. We ask parents and caregivers to go to the vaccination centers so that children and their families are protected against COVID-19”.
As of today, Costa Rica has received a total of 370,600 doses for children, as part of the contract that the country signed with the company Pfizer/BioNTech.
For 2022, 3,500,000 doses are expected to arrive from the contract with Pfizer/BioNTech
According to the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS), 111,235 children between 5 and 11 years old (1 out of 5) already have their first dose against COVID-19 and 32,619 have two doses.
For those between 12 and 17 years of age with a total of 449,852 people, 91.3% have already received a single dose. In addition, 364,974 people or 81.1% have gotten their second dose but only 631 have gotten their third dose.
Once the doses arrive in Costa Rica, and before any shots are given, they are subjected to the review and approval by the drug quality control laboratory. If there are no issues they are then made available for use in the vaccination campaign.
