NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Noting that COVID-19 vaccines to the Americas have slowed, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr Carissa Etienne yesterday urged countries to employ a “comprehensive strategy” of more than vaccination, but also public health measures aimed at curbing the surging pandemic.
The Bahamas is experiencing a third wave of the virus, according to health experts.
Etienne said vaccines alone will not stop the surge.
“I cannot stress this enough — for most countries, vaccines are not going to stop this wave of the pandemic,” Etienne said during PAHO’s weekly media briefing.
“There are simply not enough of them available to protect everyone in the countries at greatest risk.”
“Therefore, we need to stop transmission by any means possible with the tools we have at hand.
“This will require comprehensive strategies to both accelerate the rollout of vaccines and control the virus using proven public health measures,”
These include wearing masks, social distancing and hand hygiene, points raised by local health experts, who have acknowledged some subversion of public health measures due to COVID fatigue.
Since March, PAHO’s Revolving Fund has helped to deliver more than 3 million doses of COVAX-procured vaccines to 28 countries.
The Bahamas received an allocation of more than 33,000 doses last month, just weeks after it received 20,000 doses as a donation from the government of India — one of the world’s largest suppliers of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
PAHO’s Revolving Fund negotiates, purchases and arranges logistics for the shipment of vaccines to the 36 countries that participate in COVAX.
To date, more than 247 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, including through deals countries made individually with vaccine producers.
However, Etienne said in recent weeks, constraints on producers of COVAX vaccines have slowed deliveries and supplies are not expected to normalize for a few more weeks.
“In the meantime, we cannot rely on vaccines to control transmission,” she said.
“PAHO is committed to working with member states to secure more vaccine doses for our region as soon as they are available to complement what countries have already purchased via bilateral deals and through the COVAX Facility.
“We will be here for countries at every step of the way, providing technical support to troubleshoot roadblocks, increase surveillance and monitor the safety and impact of COVID vaccine.”
In the past week, more than 1.3 million people were infected with the virus and nearly 36,000 people died.
Etienne said the region is not acting as though it is in the midst of a worsening outbreak, and despite ongoing transmission in many places, restrictions have been relaxed, crowds have returned and people have been gathering and taking public transportation, often without masks.
She noted that more contagious COVID variants have fueled the acceleration of cases and spread.
New infections are increasing in Cuba, Puerto Rico and smaller Caribbean islands such as Curacao, Bermuda and Aruba.
The Bahamas has continued to observe high double-digit daily infections in recent weeks.
Another 58 cases were recorded on Tuesday, pushing total cases to 9,563, of which 339 remain active.
“New infections are increasing in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and smaller Caribbean islands such as Curacao, Bermuda, and Aruba.”
Bermuda is nowhere near the Caribbean.