One million doses

El Salvador hit a milestone today as it passed 1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine administered to the country's residents.   The Salvadoran government has been acquiring a variety of vaccines to administer to the population:  

  • 2 million doses purchased from Astra Zeneca,
  • 2 million doses purchased from CoronaVac, 
  • 4.4 million doses purchased Pfizer/BionTech 
  • 150,000 doses of CoronaVac donated by China
  • 181,000 doses through UN Covax program (Pfizer and AstaZeneca)

 The healthcare ministry has been giving shots at a steady pace above 40,000 doses per day


El Salvador's vaccination rate of 13.7 % of the population having received at least one dose compares to the worldwide rate of 7.2% according to Our World in Data.  Among countries in the Americas,  El Salvador ranks in the middle of the pack for percentage of population with at least one dose received.  It is worth noting, however, that second doses appear to be trailing first doses by a considerable amount,

El Salvador does not release data on vaccinations by demographic group, so we do not know the percentage of persons in each age group who are vaccinated.  The country recently opened up vaccinations to all people 50 and older, as well as healthcare workers, teachers, security forces and journalists.  Announcements of new groups who become eligible are made by presidential tweet.

When you look around Latin America, there are several hotspots where COVID-19 cases are surging.  El Salvador is not one of those countries.

Source: Reuters

The course of the pandemic has had two waves in El Salvador.   Peaking once last August and the second time in January.   The country is hoping to vaccinate rapidly enough and with sufficient public compliance with preventive measures like mask-wearing to avoid a third wave.   


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