Chile receives first shipment of Sinovac vaccine

Chile on Thursday received its first shipment of CoronaVac vaccines from Chinese drugmaker Sivac.Ten containers holding almost two million doses were unloed from a plane that landed in Chile's capital Santiago.

re to welcome precious cargo was Chile's president Sebastián Piñera.

"Today is a day of joy, emotion and hope," said Piñera at an airport arrival ceremony.

Piñera stated his government expects a "massive vaccination process" to begin next week, following certification from health ministry.Ar two million doses of Sivac vaccine are expected to arrive next Sunday. vaccine was approved for emergency use a week ago by Chilean Institute of Public Health. jab has alrey been licensed in China, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil.In dition to Sivac, Chile is alrey iculating health personnel and elderly home residents with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.On Wednesday health authorities gave green light to Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

So far, more than 56,000 people have been iculated and 10,315 of those have alrey received second dose, according to health authorities.Chile has reported 709,888 coronavirus cases and 18,040 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.