No US Donations But The Caribbean Has Received Over 350 Thousand COVAX Vaccines

By NAN Staff Writer

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Weds. April 7, 2021: The Joe Biden administration has yet to donate any vaccines to its third border and the tourism dependent Caribbean region, but through the COVAX facility, it now has received over 350,000 vaccines to date, with more in transit, a News Americas analysis of latest data shows.  

The COVAX Facility is a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The arrival marks a historic step towards ensuring equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, in the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history.

PAHO’s Revolving Fund, which is responsible for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines for the countries of the Caribbean and Latin American under the COVAX Facility, shipped 350, 400 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, manufactured by SK Bioscience of South Korea.  

The vaccines have so far been delivered to Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, The Bahamas, Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, the Dominican Republic and Belize have all received COVAX vaccines to date.

Shipments to St. Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and Saint Kitts & Nevis, are in transit.

Here’s how many vaccines have been received by countries to date:

Jamaica – 14,400

Barbados – 33,600

Trinidad & Tobago – 33,600

The Bahamas – 33,600

Guyana – 24,000

Dominican Republic – 91,200

Dominica – 28,800

Belize – 33,600

Suriname – 24,000

Saint Vincent & The Grenadines – 24,000

Bermuda – 9,600

Twenty-four thousand vaccines are in transit to Antigua & Barbuda, Grenada and Saint Lucia while 21,600 are en route to Saint Kitts & Nevis.

That’s a drop in the bucket of what the region needs as the Caribbean region is home to over 44 million people. The Government of Canada has said it would contribute CAN$1,200,000 (approximately USD$950,000) to support the efforts of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) against COVID-19 in six Caribbean countries. Several Caribbean island nations have issued a plea to the United States to share its stockpile of COVID-19 vaccine but the Biden administration has not done so to date.