The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) organisation should be ready to finance mass COVID-19 vaccination in the member states, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said.
“The ALBA should guarantee through the ALBA bank the financing of the member countries,” Maduro said at the 18th ALBA Summit on Monday.
During his speech, the Venezuelan president also emphasized the progress of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and mentioned Cuba’s progress in developing four domestic vaccines against COVID-19.
“There is a Russian Sputnik V vaccine, we are doing trials in Venezuela and they are going very well.
“Today Sputnik V has announced that its vaccine achieved 91 percent efficacy and 100 percent in severe cases,” Maduro added.
On Saturday, the president’s son Nicolas Maduro Guerra received the first dose of Sputnik V against COVID-19 as part of the third phase clinical trials underway in Venezuela.
According to the Venezuelan government, 2,000 volunteers take part in the trials.
The country expects to start mass vaccination in April 2021.
ALBA is an intergovernmental organisation based on the idea of the social, political, and economic integration of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The name “Bolivarian” refers to the ideology of Simon Bolivar, the 19th-century South American independence leader born in Caracas, who wanted Hispanic America to unite as a single “Great MNation”. (Sputnik/NAN)
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