In December, Colombia‘s President Iván Duque confirmed negotiations to purchase 40 million vaccines against COVID-19, through deals signed with Pfizer and AstraZeneca laboratories, to acquire 10 million vaccines from each, and the agreement to participate in the Covax platform, the World Health Organization (WHO) program for developing countries, through which Colombia’s plans to acquire another 20 million dose.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry disclosed Colombia’s vaccination plan. In order to achieve the so-called ‘herd immunity’, the country’s federal government decided to vaccinate 70% of the population (just over 35 million Colombians). From this total, 11 million people would be prioritized, including the elderly, people with comorbidities, and health workers.

The vaccination plan was divided into two phases and five stages. The first phase, made up of three stages, includes people aged 60 and over (7.6 million people); those who work in health areas, including logistics support (1.2 million people), and the population over 16 years old with conditions such as hypertensive diseases, diabetes, kidney failure, COPD, asthma, HIV, cancer, tuberculosis, and obesity, which together amount to 5.3 million people. Also, teachers will be prioritized in the first phase of the immunization strategy.

The second group of the prioritization framework includes institutional caregivers in stage 4, such as those of older adults residing in nursing homes and workers who care for people with disabilities.

The vaccine will be available for the general population in the last stage, starting with adults between 50 and 59 years old, until reaching young people and teenagers.

As expected, children and teenagers up to 15 years old, as well as pregnant women, are not included in Colombia’s vaccination plan “due to the lack of evidence on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines” for these groups.