By DANICA COTO
Associated Press
THE US GOVERNMENT has said that it will deliver nearly 837,000 Pfizer vaccines to Caribbean nations as the region with limited resources struggles with a spike in Covid-19 cases amid violent anti-vaccine protests.
The Bahamas will receive 397,000 doses followed by Trinidad and Tobago with more than 305,000 doses. Barbados will receive 70,200 doses, while 35,100 are slated for St Vincent and the Grenadines, 17,550 for Antigua and 11,700 for St Kitts and Nevis.
“The Biden-Harris administration’s highest priority in the Americas today is managing and ending the Covid pandemic and contributing to equitable recovery,” said Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere.
Thousands of specialised syringes required for the Pfizer vaccine also were donated, with officials noting that the donations involved “significant legal and logistic complexity”.
In addition, USAid, which has provided more than 28 million US dollars to help 14 Caribbean nations fight Covid-19, expects to announce additional funding soon, according to a White House official.
The Caribbean region has reported more than 1.29 million cases and more than 16,000 deaths, with some 10.7 million people vaccinated so far, according to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency.
Among the hardest hit Caribbean nations is Haiti, which on July 14 received its first vaccine shipment since the pandemic began — 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine donated by the US via the United Nations’ Covax programme for low-income countries. See complete Associated Press story at https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/united-states-to-deliver-837000-covid-vaccine-shots-to-caribbean-countries/ar-AANcp8i
