Panama to buy 2 million more doses of Pfizer vaccine

Panama has authorized the purchase of nearly 2 million shots of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for close to $24 million, adding to earlier agreements to buy 3 million doses from the U.S. drugmaker, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

Panama has so far received three shipments of the Pfizer Inc /BioNtech vaccine with nearly 158,000 doses, and is also due to receive vaccines through the World Health Organization's COVAX program.

The Health Ministry said in a statement the new deal with Pfizer would help it more quickly vaccinate the country's total population of about 4.2 million.