Colombia receives 3.5m vaccine donation from US

Colombia received 3.5 million Moderna COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday donated by the United States.

The vaccines arrived at an airport in Bogota where President Ivan Duque expressed his gratitude toward the government of US President Joe Biden.

"Today we received this marvelous gesture which is 3.5 million vaccines, an extremely important donation to continue fighting COVID-19. And I want to express to you, President (Joe) Biden, our gratitude."

The Moderna vaccine will be added to the list of vaccines being distributed in Colombia, including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac.

The donation comes at a time when the government opened vaccinations for people over 30 years of age in the capital and intermediate cities, as well those of all ages in municipalities of less than 100 thousand residents, according to local media reports.

The South American nation of 50 million has registered 4,716,798 COVID-19 cases and 118,538 deaths.