Chile receives first shipment of Sinovac vaccine

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

There to welcome the 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 the health ministry.Another two million doses of the Sinovac vaccine are expected to arrive next Sunday.The vaccine was approved for emergency use a week ago by the Chilean Institute of Public Health.The jab has already been licensed in China, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil.In addition to Sinovac, Chile is already inoculating health personnel and elderly home residents with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.On Wednesday the health authorities gave the green light to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

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