The health minister of Panama has said that the country will offer a third COVID-19 vaccine dose to moderate and severely immunocompromised people starting this week, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

Luis Sucre was quoted as saying on Tuesday: "The additional dose aims to improve the immune response" of immunosuppressed patients.

He explained that the campaign would be carried out in national and regional hospitals in the country.

Among those eligible to get an extra shot during the first phase of this plan are people undergoing cancer treatment and transplants, as well as those who received stem cells in the last two years or suffer from an advanced or untreated HIV infection.

So far, Panama has administered 5.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine and authorities say the county is close to herd immunity.