Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, has strongly criticized the COVAX system for failing to deliver his country's share of coronavirus vaccines. Maduro said he gave precise instructions to his vice president to give an ultimatum to the global vaccine-sharing scheme this week. COVAX officials say Venezuela's payments have been blocked by International financial services, including the UBS. The Latin American country needs to make payments to COVAX in foreign currency using its domestic banks. That is because the United States’ economic sanctions have hampered the country’s ability to make bank transfers necessary to pay for COVAX vaccines. Venezuela has recorded more than 277,000 cases of coronavirus, and its vaccination rollout has been very slow.