100,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine arrive in Venezuela

In a tweet, President Nicolas Maduro said medical and health personnel would be the first to receive the vaccine, "given their exposure to COVID-19." The vaccines arrived at Caracas' international airport on a special flight from Moscow on Conviasa airlines, Venezuela's state carrier, according to Reuters witnesses and images shown by state television VTV.

Maduro has previously said after healthcare workers, "vulnerable sectors" would be next in line, followed by teachers.

For months Venezuela's government has said the South American country would receive 10 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, although the vaccine's maker has not confirmed that figure.

In addition to Sputnik V, the Pan American Health Organization's chief of mission said last week that between 1.4 million and 2.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine had been reserved for Venezuela. At $10 per dose, those vaccines would cost between $140 million and $240 million.

Venezuelan government officials and opposition leaders have met to discuss buying coronavirus vaccines through the international COVAX program using cash frozen in the United States by economic sanctions, but no deal has been made.