Santo Domingo.- AstraZeneca has agreed to send various types of medicines to the Dominican Republic instead of the covid-19 vaccines pending arrival in the country, Health Minister Daniel Rivera reported this Friday.
“It has been achieved that they are going to be replaced by other types of medications, such as antihypertensives, special medications, asthma medications, even high-cost ones,” Rivera told reporters.
The exchange was proposed by the Dominican Republic due to the delay that AstraZeneca had in complying with the delivery of the vaccines that it had promised to send to the Caribbean country.
Last March, the Dominican president, Luis Abinader, accused AstraZeneca of breaching the contract and even threatened to request international arbitration.
The Dominican Republic already has a sufficient amount to cover the needs of the vaccination campaign against covid-19.
Vaccination has been stopped for months, due to the population’s lack of interest in becoming immunized since the wave of infections caused by the omicron variant was controlled. To date, 5.9 million people have received two doses of the vaccine in the Dominican Republic, just over 53% of the population, while 2.3 million have received a third dose.
Between March and May, infections reached their lowest level since the start of the pandemic and the country’s hospitals were emptied of covid patients.
But in the last week, infections have resumed an upward trend and in the last 24 hours 500 new infections were registered, while 64 people were hospitalized.
