Chile OKs AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use

Chilean health authorities approved the emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday. The Director of the local Institute of Public Health confirmed the country expects to receive more than 6 million doses of the serum throughout 2021. The first four million of those would begin arriving in March.

It is the third jab to be authorized in Chile, with Pfizer-BioNTech already being applied, and the Chinese Sinovac approved for use as well. The first four million doses of Sinovac are expected to arrive in Chile later this week. The South American country plans to immunize 12 of the 19 million Chileans during the first six months of 2021, Chilean President has announced. So far, more than 56,000 people have been inoculated with over 10,000 already having received the second dose, according to health authorities.