MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Bolivia aims to have vaccinated its adult population against COVID-19 by October, President Luis Arce said on Wednesday.
Arce, who took office in November, said during a visit to Mexico that a small number of vaccines first reached Bolivia in January, with gradually larger shipments in February and March.
“We hope by October of this year to be vaccinating 100% of the people who can be vaccinated, because remember there’s not a vaccine yet for those under 18,” Arce said at a news conference alongside Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
One of the poorest countries in South America, Bolivia has lagged behind some wealthier regional neighbors in securing bilateral vaccine supply deals.
“It’s evidently an issue of production, that the planet is lacking vaccines,” Arce said.
Bolivia has signed deals to receive vaccines from Russia and China, as well as through the World Health Organization-backed COVAX initiative and from India’s Serum Institute for AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 shot.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Dave Graham; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
