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Colombia Receives its First Vaccine to Battle COVID-19

VOA News

   Colombia is set to beginimmunizationsagainstCOVID-19 afterreceivingits
   first shipmentof vaccineson Monday.

   President Ivan Duque and his health minister accepted the first 50,000
   doses of thePfizervaccineandsaid frontline health care workers and the
   elderlywill be the first to get their shots.

   Colombia has a contract tobuy 10million doses fromPfizer and itexpects
   to soon receive 1.6 million doses from other laboratories.

   The government says itintends tovaccinate 35 million people this
   year,including hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants and
   refugees.

   Colombiaisone of the last countries in Latin America to start
   vaccinations,behindEcuador, Panama and Chile.

   President Duquesaidhis administrationwas hesitant tostartimmunizations
   untilit had assurance of getting a steady supplyof vaccine to battlethe
   novel coronavirus.

   The president also said thearrival ofvaccines does not end the use
   ofmasksandsocial distancing.

   Colombia has more than 2,198,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 57,786
   deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University Covid Resource Center.

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