PAHO delivers 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Caribbean & Latin America

Caribbean: The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has now delivered more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to the Caribbean and Latin America, according to the official website of the organisation.

PAHO has thanked the procurement and delivery partner of the COVAX vaccine in the region ‘Revolving Fund’ for their continuous efforts.

As per the official site, the latest batch of the vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus was 151,200 doses of Moderna vaccine to Haiti and around 1,511,640 doses of Pfizer to Ecuador by Spain.

The PAHO Director, Dr Carissa F Etienne, noted that “The 100 million doses mark a significant milestone.”

PAHO director further mentioned, “Thanks to close coordination between COVAX and our Revolving Fund, and the generous support of partners that helped our region secure doses when supply was limited, our countries are better placed to get shots into arms and protect their populations, including the most vulnerable.”

The PAHO Revolving Fund has supplied around 100 million vaccines to the 33 countries across the globe, leveraging more than four-decade experience in vaccine procurement. Approximately 30 percent of these were donated by the United States of America, Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Japan, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

PAHO also deliveries for other COVAX partners, including WHO, UNICEF, CEPI and Gavi, to ensure the safe and secure arrival of vaccines in the countries.

In August 2021, the PAHO launched an initiative and entered into the Long Term Agreements with three manufacturers.

However, around 63 percent of people in Latin America and the Caribbean have received vaccination against COVID-19, 14 other countries and territories haven’t vaccinated even 40 percent of their population. The lowest vaccine coverage is provided by Haiti, of less than 1.2 percent.