Only 15% of Latin America and Caribbean fully vaccinated
“We clearly need more vaccines and we need them now”
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — As she underscored that coronavirus infections continue to increase across Central America and smaller Caribbean islands, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr Carissa Etienne renewed her call for donations of vaccines to help the region.
In PAHO’s weekly presser, Etienne said the region faces a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
“The only way to stop it is to expand vaccination,” she said.
“Vaccines are critical even if no vaccine [is] 100 percent effective.
“Just as important are the public health measures.”
Cases and deaths continue to climb in Cuba, Honduras and Guatemala; and there have been concerns about Colombia and Peru becoming hotspots, the director noted.
Underscoring that only 15 percent of people in the Caribbean and Latin Americas have been fully vaccinated, Etienne said more variants will emerge as long as the pandemic continues.
For example, Haiti, which received its first tranche of doses from the US last week, has yet to reach one percent inoculation.
She encouraged donor and international agencies across the globe to help the Caribbean region procure vaccines and bring the virus under control.
She said until then, countries must continue to use all measures to mitigate the virus.
“We clearly need more vaccines and we need them now,” she said.
“At this time, vaccine donations are really the only way for many countries in our region to secure the doses they need quickly.”
As The Bahamas awaits its balance of AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX Facility, the British Overseas Territories of Montserrat and Anguilla yesterday donated 3,496 AstraZeneca doses to the country.
It is also expected to receive a tranche of Pfizer vaccines through the COVAX Facility.
Variant challenges
Etienne also underscored the challenges associated with new variants.
She confirmed that 47 countries in the region have detected at least one variant of concern.
Meanwhile, 11 have detected all four variants — alpha, beta, gamma and delta.
PAHO revealed yesterday variants alpha and iota have been confirmed in The Bahamas.
According to the director, the region has built a “robust and innovative surveillance network” that has enabled PAHO to keep a track of the emergence and spread of COVID variants.
Asked what is the best vaccine to combat the emerging COVID variants, PAHO Regional Advisor for Viral and Emerging Diseases Dr Jairo Andres Mendez Rico said the vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) are effective against all of the variants.
He reiterated that no vaccine is 100 percent effective, and there will be some who still contract the virus even after becoming fully vaccinated.
But he stressed that vaccines substantially lower severe COVID symptoms, the need for hospitalizations and fatalities.
The Bahamas has recorded 13,781 cases of the virus since last March and 274 deaths.
The nation has administered around 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines, with 39, 366 fully vaccinated — around nine percent of the population.
