Vaccines soon – COVAX facility

Barbados is forecast to receive approximately 100,800 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines through the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVAX Facility over the first and second quarters of 2021. This would facilitate vaccination for over 50 000 persons.

This was revealed by the COVAX Facility in an interim distribution plan published on Wednesday to provide a basis on which participating governments can plan for the first round of immunizations.

In the meantime, the Government of Barbados continues to pursue vaccines from other sources.

The plan suggested that the numbers are “non binding” and therefore “may be subject to change”.

“It is important to underscore that the indicative distribution is based on current communication of estimated availability from manufacturers. In this regard, it is likely the distribution may need to be adjusted in light of circumstances that are difficult to anticipate and variables that are constantly evolving,” the correspondence explained.

“Nevertheless, COVAX partners believe the publication of this information, which has now been shared with all economies participating in the COVAX Facility, marks an important first step in providing governments and public health leaders with the information they need to put in place practical steps for the provision of early doses and a successful national roll out of vaccines,” the forecast outlined.

Other Caribbean countries named in the correspondence include Antigua and Barbuda (40,800 doses), The Bahamas (100,800 doses), Belize (100,800 doses), Jamaica (146,400) and Trinidad and Tobago (100,800).

So far, the WHO has not yet approved Emergency Use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, because evaluation of the drug is still underway.

“The exact delivery after allocation will depend on the sequence of countries in the shipment plan, the time taken to place the purchase order, legal/regulatory obligations, as well as the supplier’s lead time and related logistics,” the release explained.

“If during this period, different products become available, this indicative distribution will need to be adjusted as different products may be allocated to a Facility participant and therefore the quantities indicated for the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine may be altered,” the document added.

COVAX expects 15 per cent of the doses to be available in the first quarter, another 56 per cent in the second quarter and the remainder in the second half of the year.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that India had agreed to give Barbados 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – enough to inoculate 50,000 citizens. She reiterated that frontline workers, the elderly and vulnerable groups would receive the first jabs.

Her comments came hours after Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic stressed that the Government would not be merely “sitting and waiting” for the COVAX Facility to deliver on its promise to provide vaccines for 20 per cent of the population.

“Those vaccines will come, but obviously those vaccines were inadequate for us to do what we want, which is to provide vaccines for the entire country. And so, the government has been having bilateral [talks] and meetings with all kinds of other sources to be able to obtain vaccines outside of the COVAX Facility, so that we can purchase in larger numbers. And so we have added some funding to be able to do that and to roll out that deployment plan when the vaccines become available,” he disclosed to Parliament earlier this week.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)