GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemala threatened yesterday to demand its money back if Russia fails to come through on an order of eight million doses of coronavirus vaccines it has already paid for.
Guatemala had ordered 16 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V jab for its 17 million people and paid US$79.6 million (RM330.78 million) for the first half.
There was no delivery schedule, and so far, it has received only 150,000 doses in three deliveries.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Amelia Flores told Parliament the government had sent a note to Russia’s RDIF sovereign fund, giving it 20 days to deliver at least enough vaccines to give a second dose to the 122,712 people who had received their first shot so far.
“If the deliveries are not fulfilled in relation to a calculation that we have made... then we will require the return of the resources,” she added in a radio interview yesterday, though it was not clear whether she meant the eight million or 122,712 doses.
The minister added Guatemala was negotiating with Russia to cancel the second half of its order.
Foreign Minister Pedro Brolo traveled to Moscow last week to urge it to comply with the contract, even as Russia is battling its own deadly coronavirus surge.
On his return, Brolo said Russia was having problems with “large scale” production, but had committed to sending 400,000 doses to Guatemala in the coming days.
Guatemala has also received 1.2 million doses from other sources, but had counted on Sputnik V to immunize nearly half of its population by year’s end.
So far, 925,300 people have received one vaccine dose, and about 158,000 the required two.
The vaccine shortage has sparked protests against President Alejandro Giammattei, with the country reporting more than 292,000 coronavirus cases and 9,147 deaths. – AFP, July 1, 2021
