Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Some 5,000 vaccines against covid-19 that Israel will send to Honduras will arrive in the early hours of Thursday, a source in the Armed Forces said on Tuesday, although Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez had said earlier that in the hours of the this Wednesday night.
Hernandez told Radio HRN in Tegucigalpa that for several weeks he has been managing with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and that on Saturday they had the last communication in this regard.
He added that a Netanyahu he indicated that “support is crucial for us, in the sense of having vaccines for people who are at the forefront, for exposed health personnel” in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic, which since from March 2020 it began to expand in Honduras.
Israeli support consists of 5,000 doses of the Modern vaccine that would be arriving “tomorrow night,” the president said, which may have been confused with the departure time from Israel, which is scheduled for 11 p.m. : 50 local time on Wednesday (05:50 GMT), said Armed Forces spokesman José Antonio Coello.
According to Coello, the plane of the Honduran Air Force (FAH), an executive jet for the use of President Hernandez, will leave around 08:00 local time in Israel and that, due to the stops to reload fuel, the latest in Guatemala, will arrive in Tegucigalpa around 08:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Thursday.
The Honduran presidential plane left for Israel on Sunday with FAH officials and staff from the Ministry of Health to carry out the procedures for the assistance that this country is providing in Honduras in the face of the covid-19 pandemic.
MANAGEMENTS ALSO WITH CHILE
Hernandez also noted that efforts are being made to see if it is possible to buy other vaccines in Israel, as well as Chile, which is perhaps the Latin American country that has best brought the inoculation of its population against covid-19.
Negotiations with Chile began last week, according to Hernández.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Reported today that his country will send coronavirus vaccines to other countries that, according to local media, would include Honduras and Guatemala, in addition to Hungary and the Czech Republic.
“During the last month a limited number of unused vaccines have been accumulated and therefore we have decided to attend the medical teams of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and several other countries that have contacted Israel, with a quantity symbolic of vaccines, “Netanyahu said in a statement.
The Presidency of Honduras has indicated in a statement that the batch of 5,000 vaccines from Israel will be “applied to 2,500 people in the health sector who are at the forefront.”
Vaccination will be given priority to health personnel (doctors, nurses, technicians), who are in intensive care units and covid wards across the country, in accordance with a priority table established by Program technicians. Extended Immunization (PAI), of the Ministry of Health (SESAL) “, adds the official information.
He further noted that the Government of Israel will also be providing advice to Honduras on the implementation of vaccines.
Honduras records a cumulative 4,024 deaths from covid-19 and 165,737 infections in 11 months of 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 in January Hernandez said they would begin arriving in the second week of February.
But according to the WHO and PAHO (Pan American Health Organization), it would be until the end of March, while a purchase of 1.4 million vaccines, from the Honduran Institute of Social Security (IHSS), would arrive between April and May.