6 Caribbean islands fails to achieve vaccination coverage target of WHO

Caribbean region: PAHO, Pan American Health Organisation, stated its projections note that Haiti, Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala, St Lucia, and Grenada may not achieve WHO’s vaccination coverage target. 

The Caribbean organization made the remarks today in a media briefing. 

WHO earlier set a target for the countries across the globe to vaccinate 40% of the total population by the end of this year. More than 868 million of the COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the Latin American and Caribbean regions to date. 

As per the data shared by PAHO, around 57.3 percent of the Latin American and Caribbean regions’ population has completed their vaccination schedules.     

In terms of the COVID-19 virus, the Americas region crosses the margin of 100 million infections, while the Caribbean region witnessed an increase of 16% in the daily COVID cases. 

PAHO informed, around 19 countries in the Americas region recorded cases of the new Omicron variant. Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, and Trinidad and Tobago are among those nations.  

The health organization urged citizens to strictly follow the COVID-19 health guidelines and protocols established by their governments’ to ensure their safety.  

These protocols include travel restrictions, frequently sanitizing, wearing masks, maintaining social distance, avoiding crowded places and others. 

At the starting of this month, around 20 nations in the Caribbean and Latin Americas region could not achieve the target of vaccination coverage set by the WHO.

In her recent statement, Director of PAHO, Dr Carissa Etienne, asserted, “In the short term, we are racing to get people protected from this contagious virus”.

“But COVID19 would be required a long-term strategy, especially as we learn more about the duration of protection, the impact of the vaccine on different age groups, and the behaviour of new variant”. 

In addition, today, WHO warned the world about Omicorn, noting that the variant is of very high risk.