SAN JOSE: The Costa Rican government announced on Friday it has signed up for the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility vaccine program to be able to pre-order more than one million doses of its coronavirus vaccines once they are made available.
The number of subsidized vaccines represents a fifth of the Central American nation’s population of about five million inhabitants.
“This is necessary to boost the post-pandemic economy,” President Carlos Alvarado said in a statement following the announcement.
To date, Costa Rica has confirmed more than 70,000 infections, as well as about 800 deaths attributed to the highly-contagious respiratory disease caused by the virus.
The government is also pursuing other means of acquiring more vaccines, but details were not provided.
An initial payment of about $6.3 million…