Tegucigalpa, Honduras
About 5,000 vaccines against Covid-19 that Israel will send to Honduras will arrive in the early hours of Thursday, an armed forces source reported Tuesday, although Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández had said earlier tonight.
Hernández told Radio HRN in Tegucigalpa that he has been negotiating with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for several weeks and that they had final communication on this Saturday.
He added that Netanyahu indicated that “support is critical to us in the sense that we have vaccines for people on the front lines, for exposed health workers” in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic that began to spread in Honduras since March 2020.
The Israeli support consists of 5,000 doses of the modern vaccine that would arrive “ tomorrow evening, ” the president indicated, which he may have confused with the departure time from Israel, scheduled for 11:50 p.m. local time Wednesday (5:50 a.m.) . GMT), Armed Forces spokesman José Antonio Coello explained.
According to Coello, the Honduran Air Force (FAH) plane, an executive jet for use by President Hernández, will depart from Israel around 8 a.m. local time and due to stopovers to refuel, the last in Guatemala will arrive around 8 a.m. on Thursday. time (14:00 GMT) to arrive in Tegucigalpa.
Honduras’ presidential plane took off with FAH officials and health ministry personnel to Israel on Sunday to process the aid that country is providing to Honduras in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
MANAGEMENT ALSO WITH CHILE
Hernández also pointed out that steps are being taken to see if it is possible to purchase other vaccines from Israel, in addition to Chile, which may be the Latin American country that is vaccinating its people against the COVID-19
Negotiations with Chile started last week, Hernández said.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reported today that his country will send vaccines against the coronavirus to other countries that, according to local media, would include Honduras and Guatemala, in addition to Hungary and the Czech Republic.
“A limited amount of unused vaccines has accumulated over the past month, so we have decided to assist medical teams from the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and several other countries that have contacted Israel with a symbolic amount of vaccines,” Netanyahu said. . said in a statement.
The Presidency of Honduras stated in a statement that the batch of 5,000 vaccines from Israel will be “applied to 2500 people in the health sector who are in the front row”.
In vaccination, “priority will be given to health personnel (doctors, nurses, technicians) who are in intensive care units and covid rooms across the country, in accordance with a priority list prepared by Expanded Program on Immunization technicians ( PAI), from the Ministry of Health (SESAL) ”, adds official information.
It also indicates that the government of Israel will also advise Honduras on the use of vaccines.
Honduras records a total of 4,024 deaths from Covid-19 and 165,737 infections in 11 months of the pandemic.
The Central American country is still waiting for the 20 percent free vaccines it needs for its entire population, through the Covax Mechanism promoted by the World Health Organization, which Hernández said would begin in the second week of February in January. .
But according to WHO and PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), it would take until the end of March, while the purchase of 1.4 million vaccines from the Honduran Social Security Institute (IHSS) would take place between April and May.