All Caribbean countries to get COVID-19 vaccines by early April – PAHO

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne has said that by early next month all Caribbean countries will have received their first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines under the COVAX Facility.

At the same time, the PAHO director warned that COVID-19 is surging dangerously in many countries in the region.

As the recognized procurement agent for COVAX in the Caribbean abd Latin America, PAHO’s Revolving Fund negotiates, purchases, and handles shipment logistics on behalf of the 36 countries participating in COVAX – the global alliance to ensure equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccine – which has helped deliver more than 2.2 million doses to the region so far, and more doses are expected to arrive this week in Suriname and Belize.

Responding to questions in her weekly media briefing about when countries will get their initial vaccine shipments, Etienne said: “PAHO is doing all that it can to accelerate access to vaccines in our region. Following PAHO’s negotiations with the COVAX partners, we have ensured that 21 countries in the Americas will receive their first deployment of vaccines by the end of this week. And in early April, all countries in our region will be able to receive their first deployment of vaccines.”

Although adding that was “good news”, the top PAHO official said vaccine supplies are limited and the amounts deployed represented, in many and most cases, a small percentage of the countries’ populations.

Etienne warned that the virus is not receding, neither is the pandemic starting to go away.

In the past week, more than 1.2 million people were infected with COVID-19 in the Americas, more than during the previous week, while 31,272 people died of the virus.

The pandemic is particularly dire in South America, where infection is reported to be spiking in Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In the Caribbean, cases are increasing in Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao and Cuba. In Jamaica, cases have risen steadily for several weeks.

“As the virus surges and hospitalizations rise. We urgently need to scale up vaccination among our most vulnerable populations,” the PAHO director said.

Meantime, she urged people of the region to continue to respect and adhere to public health measures – masks, hand washing, and social distancing – especially during the upcoming Easter holidays.

Over 155.8 million doses of the vaccine, including the COVAX deliveries, have been rolled out in the Americas, and in the Caribbean and Latin America, immunization campaigns are underway in 33 of the 35 countries that are members of PAHO.
PAHO is assisting the two countries, Haiti and Cuba, that have yet to start immunization. -(CMC)