“Vaccines are not available through COVAX, nor available for purchase,” PM Harris

St Kitts and Nevis: Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris called for a greater response from fellow world leaders and stakeholders to the global shortage of Covid-19. The remarks of the Prime Ministers were made during a presentation at the ACT Accelerator Facilitation Board meeting on 12 May 2021.

“The approved COVID-19 vaccines are not available through COVAX and are not available at prices we can afford. This is not right: in a world where millions of doses of Coronavirus vaccine lie untouched in warehouses of some nations, so many of us around the globe, including my CARICOM region, just cannot get sufficient vaccines to attain herd immunity against this terrible disease,” said PM Harris.

Prime Minister Harris presided the meeting as the Head of CARICOM with responsibility for Health to shed light on striking global inequalities in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, particularly the Oxford-AstraZeneca.

The PM also praised the work that St. Kitts and Nevis’s government have done to protect citizens and residents while keeping economic sustainability during the continuing pandemic.

“We did everything in our power to find the right balance between life and livelihood. We have a protocol for every sector, Tourism, Education, Services and Security,” he said.

Other issues raised by Prime Minister Harris during his speech at the ACT Accelerator Facilitation Board meeting include the rearrangement of land allocation and the redistribution of excess vaccines and vaccinations for children.

“This is my short-term solution: the allocation of excess vaccines in countries that need it. The children are suffering from this infection. The cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) are worryingly high in CARICOM, as we have been monitoring it across our countries,” he said.

The ACT Accelerator Facilitation Board meeting aims to bring together multilateral stakeholders in an effort to identify barriers and strategies to increase the use and use of Covid-19 instruments at the national level and to lead the COVAX Task Force on Strategies to expand Covid-19 vaccine production.

The ACT Accelerator Facilitation Board meeting was also attended by Dr Hazel Laws, Chief Medical Officer and by Facilitated by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.