(Bloomberg) -- Colombia became the first nation in the Americas to get Covid-19 shots through the World Health Organization-backed Covax program, giving a boost to a vaccination drive that has lagged regional peers.
The 117,000 doses of the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine arrived on Monday in Bogota, with President Ivan Duque calling on all parties involved to “accelerate the distribution” of the shots. Colombia has purchased 20 million doses through the program.
The Covax initiative aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses to lower-income countries by the end of the year. Ghana was the first nation to receive vaccines from the multilateral initiative.
More Than 242 Million Shots Given: Covid-19 Tracker
Colombia has so far vaccinated less than 0.3% of its population, a lower proportion than Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Chile and Argentina.
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