Barbados and its Caribbean neighbours are in line to receive a large donation of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States that Thursday unveiled plans to donate through the World Health Organization’s COVAX scheme for distributing doses to developing countries.
It’s a move that has been hailed by the Director General of the Pan American Health Organisation Dr Carissa Etienne, who suggests it’s a major boost in the fight against the pandemic.
US President Joe Biden announced plans to send the first tranche of 25 million doses, including 19 million procured through COVAX, to countries around the world. This includes “approximately six million for South and Central America to the following countries: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Haiti, and other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, as well as the Dominican Republic,” a White House statement specified.
So far, the US has only distributed three million doses of vaccines to other countries, amid widespread criticism that the world’s richest countries are hoarding the jabs while millions get sick and die from the viral infection.
It also said: “The United States will share vaccines in our region and across our borders. We first made doses available to our closest neighbors – Canada and Mexico. Our dose-sharing approach prioritizes Latin American and the Caribbean on a per capita basis.”
Biden’s announcement is “a good step forward” in our drive to get vaccines into the arms of our people in Latin America and the Caribbean”, the PAHO chief declared.
“We are grateful for this dose-sharing initiative and encourage other countries with surplus vaccines to follow the lead of the United States,” she added.
The development comes on the heels of recent calls by Prime Minister Mia Mottley for the creation of an international clearinghouse for the purchase and sale of COVID-19 vaccines and a global summit on COVID-19 to address the challenges.
Mottley told the 13th International Economic Forum on Latin America and the Caribbean last Thursday: “The presence of that international vaccine clearinghouse and the presence of a global summit on COVID-19 will allow us to coordinate our actions, both in terms of restrictors, even 16 months later, and it will allow us to be able to fight the race against variants.”
The PAHO director called effective vaccines “a beacon of hope” in the crisis.
“We must do all in our power to secure more doses for all nations in the Americas. Regional solidarity, including the donation of vaccine doses, will be key to get us through the current shortage of supply.
“This pandemic is far from over, and it is hitting Latin America and the Caribbean severely, affecting our health, our economies, and entire societies. Yet only about eight per cent of our citizens have been fully vaccinated,” Dr Etienne said. “The region is an epicentre for COVID-19 suffering. It should be an epicenter for vaccination, too.
“Our most urgent need continues to be additional vaccines, and as we thank the United States, I also want to repeat our call for other donations of vaccines to the countries of the Americas, which have a high epidemiological burden and not enough vaccines to reach a high proportion of their populations,”
So far, COVAX has delivered 18.9 million doses of vaccines to 31 countries in the Americas. PAHO and its Revolving Fund are working with governments, vaccine-makers and donors to ensure more vaccines can reach the Caribbean and Latin America. (SD/PAHO)
