The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has said that he will give the COVAX system an ultimatum this week to send the country's share of COVID-19 vaccines as all pending payments had been made to COVAX, the global vaccine sharing facility, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

COVAX reportedly informed Venezuela in June 2021 that the last four payments had been blocked by UBS. These payments cover the USD120m fees that have already been made.

Maduro was quoted as saying in a live appearance on state television that officials had been instructed to "give the COVAX system an ultimatum: they send us the vaccines or they give us the money back, period."

Venezuela is facing US sanctions that affect its access to the global financial system and reportedly relied on domestic banks to make part of the payment to the COVAX system with foreign currency.

The country has expressed interest in receiving the Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Novavax (Nasdaq:NVAX) vaccines through COVAX.