By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

THE Pan American Health Organisation has said that all countries in the region should expect deployment of COVID vaccines through the COVAX facility by early April.

PAHO Director Dr Carissa F Etienne gave the update during the organisation’s weekly COVID-19 briefing.

The Bahamas, since last week, has been doling out doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to healthcare workers, the elderly and other priority groups.

More than 1,500 Bahamian citizens have been vaccinated so far.

However these vaccines were part of a 20,000 dose gift from the government of India.

Asked when the COVAX organised vaccines—which the government has paid for—will reach the region, Dr Etienne had good news.

“This is a preoccupation of many countries in our region,” she said. “I want to assure you that PAHO is doing all that it can to accelerate access to vaccines in our region. Following PAHO’s negotiation with COVAX facility, we have ensured that 21 countries in the Americas will receive their first deployment of vaccines by the end of this week.

“And, in early April, all countries in our region will be able to receive their first deployment of vaccines. This is good news, but supply is limited and the amounts deployed represent in many and most cases a small percentage of the countries’ population.”

Dr Etienne said even though there have been improvements, the region is still experiencing high COVID-19 infection numbers.

“So despite some progress our region has been and remains the epicentre of (the) COVID-19 pandemic with many countries reporting high mortality,” she continued. “We all know that vaccines are our way out of the pandemic, but only if we have more equitable access to vaccines to cover more than 70 percent of our adult population. As a region we need to work together and explore different mechanisms to expand the core of vaccines available.

“If the supply is limited and rich countries are buying it up then that limits our possibility of getting adequate vaccines. PAHO will continue to play a coordination role to make this happen, but we need to count on the solidarity of our member states. We must explore all options together. We need to seek donations by countries who will have surplus vaccines. We need to be able to share vaccines through loans of vaccines – and this is not new in the region of the Americas.”

The PAHO director revealed that over 1.2 million people became sick with COVID-19 in the Americas, and more than 31,272 people died because of the virus.

She continued, “More cases were reported in the region last week than the week before, which means that despite the gradual rollout of vaccines, millions of people remain at risk of illness and death. We must continue to take COVID-19 seriously. Cases have started to plateau across the US, Canada and Mexico, although the state of Ontario in Canada reported a rise in cases the past two weeks.

“Over the same time period, the US states of Minnesota and West Virginia have reported increases in deaths. In the Caribbean, a majority of cases were reported by Jamaica, where they have risen steadily for several weeks. Cuba is also reporting an increase in cases, along with Aruba, Curaçao, and Antigua and Barbuda. What I’ve just described is an active public health emergency.”

Dr. Etienne said the coronavirus is not receding, nor is the pandemic starting to go away so precautions are still necessary.

“Vaccines are coming, but they are still several months away for most people in our region,” she said. “Until they arrive and until most of the population is vaccinated, we must continue to do what works – wear a mask, maintain your distance, avoid large gatherings, and follow the guidance of your local health authorities. This is especially important with holidays coming up in many countries.

“People cannot let down their guard by engaging in close contact with others. As the virus surges and hospitalisations rise, we urgently need to scale up vaccinations among our most vulnerable populations.

“I am pleased to report that 33 of our 35 member states have started immunisations and over 155 million doses have been delivered in our region, so far.”

She said PAHO is working closely with Haiti and Cuba, which are the two remaining countries in the region that have not yet started to vaccinate its citizens.

Dr Etienne informed the weekly briefly that the COVAX facility has delivered 2,161,800 doses to the region so far and 1.2 million additional doses have already been procured.

• An earlier version of this story said The Bahamas was expected to receive COVAX vaccines by the end of this week. This story has been updated to clarify that The Bahamas was not specified by PAHO as a country that is scheduled to receive its shipment of the COVAX COVID-19 vaccines during that timeframe.