A shipment of 500,000 doses of a Covid vaccine from the United States arrived in Haiti on Wednesday, the first shots to reach a country. thrown into turmoil After the assassination of President Jovenel Moss.
This donation is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to bolster delayed vaccination campaigns in the world’s poorest countries, and will be distributed by Covax, the global vaccine-sharing effort, according to Permit From the Pan American Health Organization, part of the World Health Organization.
“The arrival of these vaccines is very promising, and now the challenge is to get them to the people who need them most,” Carissa F Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said in the statement.
Haiti is one of the few countries around the world, and the only one in Latin America or the Caribbean, that has not yet started a Covid vaccination programme, Leave her in danger Because the highly contagious delta variant is spreading around the world. The country recorded less than 20,000 cases of coronavirus and 487 deaths, According to data from the New York TimesBut experts believe that number is understated due to low levels of testing.
Marie Greta Roy Clement, Haiti’s public health minister, said the doses provided by the United States would be provided free of charge, but she did not specify who would get the injections first. The Associated Press reported that the US shipment was of the Moderna vaccine.
“This first assignment of vaccines puts an end to a long wait, not only for the people of Haiti, but also for the people of the region who were very concerned that Haiti was the only country in the Americas that had not yet provided a Covid-19 vaccine,” said Dr. Kleiman.
Even before the assassination of the president on July 7, political instability and lack of resources were so Haiti’s response impeded to a new outbreak of the virus. Last month, officials at a hospital outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, refused patients because its wards were full. Hospitals have added beds, but doctors warn there will not be enough medical oxygen to treat patients if cases rise further.
The United States will soon send more vaccines to Haiti, officials said, as the Biden administration speeds delivery of 12 million doses it has pledged to countries in the Caribbean and Latin America. About four million doses have been delivered so far, to Bolivia, El Salvador and Honduras, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
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