By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday voiced hope that The Bahamas will be “next in line” to receive a distribution of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines from “overflowing” US stockpiles.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, while declining to comment on whether this nation’s vaccination roll-out is proceeding rapidly enough to aid tourism’s revival, told Tribune Business he hoped The Bahamas’ proximity will make it the prime candidate to be the next beneficiary of US generosity.

With stockpiles of the AstraZeneca vaccine accumulating, and its emergency use yet to be authorised in the US, the Biden administration was reported to have agreed to make 2.5m doses available to Canada and give 1.5m to Mexico as it is currently unable to use them on Americans.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is the current version being employed in The Bahamas, and Mr D’Aguilar said: “I will say that the US has, according to press reports, about 30m AstraZeneca doses in-country.

“They made some distribution of the stock of AstraZeneca to Canada and Mexico as they don’t have emergency use authorisation for that yet, and don’t expect that to happen until May at the earliest. Yet they are awash in Pfizer, Moderna and J&J. 

“One hopes that given our proximity we can be the recipient of some of that largesse they’ve given to Canada and Mexico. First of all, we are the closest of their remaining neighbours out there, and a large percentage of what is spent in The Bahamas ends back up in the US,” he added.

“One hopes they see fit to make available some of their supply.... They’ve done it with Mexico and Canada, and hopefully we’re next in line.” The New York Times reported on March 18 that “tens of millions of doses of the [AstraZeneca] vaccine have been sitting in American manufacturing sites”.

However, the Biden administration said the shipments to Mexico and Canada would effectively be a loan, with the US receiving doses of AstraZeneca, or other vaccines, in the future - something that The Bahamas would find hard to reciprocate.

However, The Bahamas’ vaccine needs pale in comparison to the size of Canada and Mexico given this country’s 400,000-strong population. The first 20,000 vaccine shots received by this nation were supplied by India, and it is still awaiting to receive some 33,600 doses - out of 100,000 ordered - of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the Pan Health Organisation’s (PAHO) COVAX facility.

Those 120,000 total shots, though, are still way short of the likely 280,000 needed for The Bahamas to meet the so-called “herd immunity” threshold of having 70-80 percent of its population vaccinated against COVID-19.

Mr D’Aguilar spoke out after Kerry Fountain, the Out Islands Promotion Board’s executive director, last week urged The Bahamas to “step up its game” on the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out over fears its Caribbean rivals are outpacing it.

Kerry Fountain, the Out Islands Promotion Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business he had just attended a Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) meeting where it was revealed that more than 60 percent of hotel workers in Turks & Caicos have already been vaccinated against the virus.

Some 30 percent of the total population in The Bahamas’ immediate southern neighbour have also been inoculated against COVID-19, while Barbados media reported five days ago that more than 60,000 persons - over 20 percent of its population - have also received their jabs.

Calling for “all hands on deck” over the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, Mr Fountain told this newspaper: “What remains a challenge for us, and not just in the Family Islands but throughout the island of The Bahamas, is acceptance of the vaccine and then the distribution of the vaccine.

“When I say challenges with the vaccine, it’s not just putting it in folks’ arms, but encouraging people to want to take the vaccine. I was on a BHTA call today, and Stacy Cox from the Turks & Caicos Islands reported that 60 percent of their hotel workers received the vaccine and 30 percent of the population received the vaccine.

“Those are big numbers, even though their population is much smaller. Sixty percent is 60 percent and 30 percent-plus is 30 percent. We received our first vaccines about two weeks’ ago, some 20,000 shots, but up to this weekend only 1,500 persons had received them,” Mr Fountain continued.

“That number will have changed but you’d think that if we get 20,000 vaccines in The Bahamas two to three weeks’ ago all would be gone by now. We have a challenge convincing Bahamians of qualifying age to take the vaccine and we need to step up our efforts in that regard.”

Mr D’Aguilar said Caribbean dependencies of the US and UK, like Turks & Caicos, had been able to rely on their parent nation to receive supplies of COVID-19 vaccines. The Bahamas, as an independent nation, has no such support.

Pointing to the advantages enjoyed by the likes of the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands and Bermuda, he added: “They are clearly having more success in securing a supply of vaccines than we are because they are benefiting from their association with their colonial power.

“We threw off the chains of colonialism in 1973 with a decision that has been enormously advantageous to us, but in this particular instance in securing or being the recipient of vaccines from a mother country we don’t have that connection any more. All those territories are awash in vaccines to their benefit, and they are enjoying it.”

However, Barbados, which is independent, has managed to vaccinate 60,000 persons or 20 percent of its population. Meanwhile, the National COVID-19 Consultative Committee last night said The Bahamas will receive the 33,600 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility this week.

“Since the COVID-19 vaccination programme began on March 14, 2021, more than 7,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered on New Providence and Grand Bahama,” the committee said. “The highest number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered on a single day totalled more than 1,000.”