PAHO secures millions of Sinovac vaccine doses for Americas

The Pan American Health Organization, the Americas branch of the World Health Organization, announced on Wednesday that it has secured an agreement with the Chinese vaccine company Sinovac to but 8.5 million vaccine doses for 2021 and 80 million doses for 2022 in order to vaccinate people living in countries in south and central America where very few people have received vaccine shots. More than 550,000 people have died due to the coronavirus in the Americas, or some 55% of deaths from the virus worldwide. More than a billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the Americas since they became available in 2021 , but only 35% of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated, PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne said in a statement.