A million doses against COVID-19 expire in Guatemala because the population does not want to be vaccinated

Just over a million Sputnik V vaccines against COVID-19 expired in Guatemala on Monday due to the rejection of the population to be inoculated, said health authorities of the Central American nation, who warned that three million more injections against the disease are about to expire.

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Guatemala has the lowest level of vaccination against COVID-19 in Central America, with just 39% of its population receiving at least one dose, even below the world average, which is 63%, according to the Our World in Data site. .

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“We see a pattern in the rejection of the vaccine,” Health Minister Francisco Coma said at a press conference. “We found many reasons, like the vaccine kills or makes people sterile,” he added.

The official warned that three million more vaccines expire in March, so he called on Guatemalans not to be afraid and get immunized. Coma did not say which pharmaceutical companies are the vaccines to expire.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, as of February 27, 5.6 million people have been vaccinated with the full schedule and only 1.8 million already have the booster dose, out of some 18 million Guatemalans registered in the last population census.

The losses due to expired vaccines add up to 10.4 million dollars, said Ariel Hernández, administrative deputy minister of Health, during the press conference.

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Source: Elcomercio

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