President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, has announced that the country has canceled its order of a second batch of eight million Russian-made Covid-19 vaccines due to a delivery delay of a previous order, AFP reports.

The president told reporters that his administration had renegotiated its contract with Moscow and would no longer buy the additional eight million Sputnik V doses as laid out in the initial agreement and would negotiate with other pharmaceutical companies instead.

Giammattei said that the canceled purchase corresponded to the "50 per cent that was planned to be spent on Sputnik vaccines."

"With that commitment (with Russia) having been released this year, we will be investing that amount in the negotiations that are already being held" with other companies, he said.