Barbados getting Pfizer vaccines from US

Barbados is set to receive its first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, when a shipment of 70 200 doses from the United States arrives in the island.

The doses are among a total 837 000 which the United States government announced on Wednesday that it will send to Caribbean countries. Specialized syringes required for administering the Pfizer vaccine have also been donated.

Acting Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw is expected to be at the Grantley Adams International Airport to accept the vaccine shipment.

In addition to Barbados, The Bahamas will receive 397 000 doses and Trinidad and Tobago will get more than 305 000, while 35 100 are slated for St Vincent and the Grenadines, 17 550 for Antigua and Barbuda, and 11 700 for St Kitts and Nevis.

“The Biden-Harris administration’s highest priority in the Americas today is managing and ending the COVID pandemic and contributing to equitable recovery,” said Juan González, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere.

Meanwhile, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday that it will use its Revolving Fund to help countries in Latin America and the Caribbean procure enough vaccines to control COVID-19 transmission.

“The region is still short of the doses needed to turn the tide of the pandemic,” she told reporters at a media briefing. “We need a significant influx of vaccines and a more equitable process for distributing them. With this in mind, PAHO is offering our Member States a new opportunity to access COVID-19 vaccines.”

She said PAHO’s Revolving Fund will go “beyond the 20 per cent COVAX offers”, referring to COVAX’s commitment to procure vaccines for 20 per cent of the region’s population—the most at-risk groups.

The Revolving Fund, which has procured other vaccines for the region at low prices for 42 years, is already receiving requests from countries for COVID-19 vaccines for the last three months of 2021 and for 2022, Dr Etienne said.

Up until now, the Revolving Fund has served as one of the COVAX purchasing mechanisms and worked directly with countries requesting support to deliver donations through bilateral agreements. It has deployed over 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Latin American and Caribbean countries procured through COVAX. (BT)