LA PAZ, Bolivia ¨C As Bolivia struggled late last year to secure deals with large drug firms to supply COVID-19 vaccines, the incoming president, Luis Arce, turned to Russia for help.
By the end of December, Bolivia clinched its first major COVID-19 vaccine deal, with enough shots for some 20% of the population. The first Sputnik V doses arrived in the country in late January, just as virus cases were spiking.
¡°It was a really marathon task,¡± said Bolivian trade minister Benjamin Blanco of the procurement quest, but Russia¡¯s political will made it possible. Western vaccine makers ¡°told us developing countries that we had to wait until June.¡± He didn¡¯t name names.
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