Mexico City, Mexico — On Tuesday, the president of Honduras expressed his thanks to Mexico for the donation of 100,000 anti-covid vaccines. Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández expressed his gratitude after the Federal Government of Mexico confirmed the donation and shipment of 100,000 vaccines.
Through social media, the Honduran president thanked “the people and government of Mexico” for the anti-covid vaccines “that will be arriving in the country soon.”
“I also thank other countries such as El Salvador and Israel who have supported us to obtain the vaccine for our people,” Hernández said on his social networks.
The announcement of the donation of vaccines to Honduras occurs within the framework of the visit to Mexico by the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris. One of the objectives of the official visit was to strengthen cooperation and development mechanisms in southern Mexico and Central America.
On June 3, the US Government announced its plans to send a first round of 25 million doses of vaccine against Covid-19 to countries around the world, including Central American nations such as Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama and Costa Rica.
The donation of vaccines came after UNICEF began urging rich countries to donate vaccines to the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme to bridge the gap in supplies caused by India’s decision to curb vaccine exports.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore urged the G7 countries and the European Union to donate vaccines since COVAX is facing a severe shortage, adding that the world’s richest countries can afford to donate over 150 million vaccines to nations in need without hampering their own vaccination efforts.
“Sharing immediately available excess doses is a minimum, essential and emergency stop-gap measure, and it is needed right now,” Fore said, emphasizing that the move could help prevent vulnerable countries from becoming the next virus hotspot.
The UN agency is responsible for supplying vaccines through COVAX, which is run jointly by the WHO and the GAVI vaccine alliance. The program relies heavily on the relatively low-cost AstraZeneca vaccine.