Feb. 22, 2021 - Sigrid Holvoet

Big excitement for Colombia, on February 15, the first 50,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines against the coronavirus arrived in the country. They are the first vaccines of a batch of 1,600,000 that would arrive between the following weeks of February and second week of March.

Two days later they started with the first vaccinated person. ‘Verónica Machado’ will be a name that marks history, she is the head nurse of the Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital of Sincelejo. The vaccination plan began that same day, on Wednesday, February 17. The first cities to receive the vaccines will be the coastal cities Sincelejo and Montería, followed by the main cities. The idea is to vaccinate 350,000 people who work on the front line of COVID-19 care and then 1,200,000 people over 80 years of age. The ultimate huge challenge is to vaccinate nearly 35 million people in Colombia, the equivalent to 70% of its inhabitants.