Chile's president gets second COVID-19 jab with Chinese Sinovac vaccine

Chile's President Sebastian Pinera arrives at a hospital to receive his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac in Santiago, Chile on March 12, 2021. (Office of the Chilean President/Handout via Xinhua)

SANTIAGO, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Chile's President Sebastian Pinera on Friday received his second dose of a Chinese vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease, which is developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac.

In the fight against the pandemic, "we have two great tools, two great allies. One is the vaccine and the other is taking care of yourselves," the president told reporters after getting the shot at the Clinical Hospital of Chile's Air Force in the capital Santiago.

Pinera received the first dose on Feb. 12 in Futrono, a town in the Los Rios region of southern Chile.

Chile's vaccination process has gone "very well," with 4.6 million Chileans vaccinated to date, and 1.5 million having gotten the second dose, said Pinera.

"We are very close, very close to reaching the goal of vaccinating 5 million people, the population at risk, the elderly, the chronically ill ... to be able to move towards the protection of health and the lives of all our compatriots," he added.

Chile launched mass vaccination on Feb. 3, after first vaccinating healthcare workers in December.

The plan is to vaccinate 5 million people in the first quarter of the year and 15 million by midyear.

The South American country has registered 879,485 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and 21,451 deaths from the disease, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health.