Senior Venezuelans finally get vaccinated against COVID-19

In February, the Venezuelan government began vaccinating only medical staff and teachers.

On May 27, the Venezuelan Minister of Health, Carlos Alvarado, said that the government had immunized 1.3 million people and that the government expected to receive more vaccine shipments the following week.

The national goal is to vaccinate 70% of the population, around 22 million citizens, from May to December, sources said.

“I feel wonderful, very good attention in everything. This is a liberation, I have been locked in my apartment for a year without going out, without even going down to the ground floor, without having contact with anyone," 91-years-old Maria Mercedes Rodriguez said.

The people who wanted to get vaccinated were summoned in the last hours through a text message, after being randomly selected by the Patria system, a platform that the government created approximately five years ago, initially for the allocation of bonds but is now used to control subsidized gasoline and various social and health surveys.

In several interviews conducted by Sputnik in the capital of Venezuela, senior citizens showed their gratitude and said they were happy to be inoculated, given the risk of being infected with coronavirus at their age.

"I was locked up with my old man (husband), getting vaccinated is like a liberation," 80-years-old Miriam Montilla said.

Josefina Ramirez, 61, indicated that she attended the event being a little afraid of the vaccine's side effects, but said that she opted for receiving it.

"I am a little nervous because they say so many things about the vaccine that one does not know what is good and what is bad, but I came because I want at least not to get infected," she told Sputnik.

The Venezuelan government opened a total of 27 points throughout the country where citizens received the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and the Chinese Sinopharm.

According to the Johns Hopkins University, the COVID death toll in Venezuela stands at 2,629 people, and the number of detected cases is more than 232,800 people.