SAN JOSE, March 15 (Reuters) - Costa Rica's government added
1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to its existing 3 million-dose
contract with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, the president's
office said on Monday, in a bid to secure more supplies of
lifesaving inoculations.
Pfizer has partnered with Germany's BioNTech for
the vaccines.
The additional vaccine doses bring the Central American
country's total to 7 million, including already contracted
supplies stemming from deals with AstraZeneca as well as
the World Health Organization-backed COVAX program.
The total number of doses would allow vaccination of 3.5
million Costa Ricans, or about 70% of the population.
Since the pandemic began last year, the Costa Rican health
ministry has disclosed some 209,000 confirmed cases along with
more than 2,800 deaths attributable to the highly contagious
disease caused by the virus.
(Reporting by Alvaro Murillo; Writing by David Alire Garcia;
editing by Jonathan Oatis)