State Dept. rep says US aware of the ‘acute need’ for vaccines in Caribbean

The United States is well aware of “the acute need” for COVID-19 vaccines in Caribbean and Latin American countries, according to a senior official at the US Department of State.

During a press briefing, The Nassau Guardian asked Gayle E. Smith, the Department of State’s coordinator for global COVID response and health security, to indicate whether any Caribbean countries, particularly The Bahamas, are among the countries being considered to receive some of the 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine or the 20 million doses of US-approved vaccines from the United States.

“In fact, we do have a strategy, which I just laid out; and the situation across the CARICOM countries and in Latin America has been front of mind, I think, for the United States, given that this is indeed in our hemisphere,” Smith replied.

“We are looking at all regions given the constraints in vaccine supply literally everywhere and we have not made final decisions. But I can tell you that we are looking closely at every region and that we are well aware of, and I’ve had the honor of meeting with several representatives of CARICOM about this as well as Latin American countries of the acute needs, in fact, on or near our borders.” 

The Bahamas has received 87,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine since March.

Twenty thousand of those doses were donated by the Indian government before the start of its recent COVID crisis. The remaining doses were secured through the COVAX Facility.

The Pan American Health Organization said The Bahamas should receive another 33,600 doses, through COVAX, by early June. 

It was previously announced that Canada and Mexico would receive millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the US.

Last month, the White House announced that the US will also share 60 million doses of the vaccine with other countries.

It has not yet indicated which countries will benefit from this initiative.  

During Wednesday’s briefing, Smith said, “I know this is obviously a question on all of your minds – we haven’t made decisions on allocations yet. We are looking literally all over the globe, again, with partners and with COVAX, to see what the most effective allocation of these doses will be.

“And again, it’s our hope and intention that what we are kicking off here is a robust process from the international community to share more doses and increase the supply, so that we can get coverage in all the places that it’s needed. But, unfortunately, I don’t have answers for you right now on the actual allocation.”

She said the US will have information on allocations “sometime in the near term”.

The post State Dept. rep says US aware of the ‘acute need’ for vaccines in Caribbean appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/state-dept-rep-says-us-aware-of-the-acute-need-for-vaccines-in-caribbean/