Países del Caribe reciben vacunas contra el Covid-19 donadas por India
Other Caribbean countries receive 425,000 vaccines from India
Seven Caribbean countries have received vaccines from India under its Vaccine Maitri initiative, with at least one more scheduled to receive vaccines soon.
The total number of doses distributed so far is 425,000.
St Lucia received 25,000 vaccines on Tuesday, while St Vincent and the Grenadines received 40,000. St Kitts and Nevis received 20,000 vaccines on Monday, along with Antigua and Barbuda, which got 40,000, and Suriname, which received 50,000.
Barbados and Dominica received 100,000 and 70,000 vaccines on February 10.
Guyana is scheduled to receive 80,000 vaccines this week.
The vaccines are the Covishield vaccines being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
On February 10, Caricom Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “generous contribution of 500,000 doses of covid19 vaccines to the Caribbean Community. A tangible expression of goodwill in this challenging time.”Trinidad and Tobago has not received any vaccines from India, although Caricom and Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne has said that negotiations are taking place at various diplomatic levels.
Saint Lucia Receives 25,000 COVID-19 Vaccines From India
Saint Lucia Monday received 25,000 doses of COVID-19 Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccines from India.
Prime Minister Allen Chastanet described it as a very emotional moment.
Chastanet called attention to the global impact of the pandemic.
And he also made reference to its impact Saint Lucians here and abroad, some of whom have died .
“The verdict is still not out,” the PM explained.
He said that the scientific evidence is still being awaited in regard to what will happen in the coming years.
But Chastanet lauded the generousity of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the PM, Modi’s concern for Small Island Developing States did not start today.
Chastanet said as a Prime Minister for four and a half years, he has learned not to expect that kind of attention and level of commitment and sincerity.
He declared that Modi has come to occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of “all of us in CARICOM.’
The Office of the Prime Minister here says on Saturday the Indian government dispatched 175,000 Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine doses to 5 Caribbean countries .
They included four member states of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
Saint Lucia’s got its first allocation on Monday.
Chastanet disclosed that Saint Lucia has arranged to obtain additional vaccines from India.
He said the authorities here are hoping to convince every Saint Lucian to take the vaccine.
But he observed that some information is causing people to second guess whether they should.
However was hopeful that by his own example in taking the jab and the example that his cabinet and other national leaders will set, doubters will be convinced.
Surinam: Eerste 1.000 vaccins uit India overhandigd
India heeft in totaal 50.000 AstraZeneca/Covishield vaccins geschonken aan Suriname. De eerste 1.000 vaccins van de schenking werden dinsdag overhandigd door de ambassadeur van India, Mahender Singh Kanyal, aan president Chandrikapersad Santokhi, minister Amar Ramadhin van Volksgezondheid en minister Albert Ramdin van Buitenlandse Zaken, International Business en Internationale Samenwerking.
President Santokhi spreekt op zijn Facebookpagina dank uit aan vooral premier Narendra Modi van India ‘voor deze grootmoedige actie om Suriname te voorzien van vaccins. Hiermee kunnen we sneller onze burgers vaccineren. Samen gaan we de strijd tegen het Coronavirus aan.’
Guyana: 20,000 COVID vaccines from China to arrive today
GUYANA will be receiving 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China, slated to arrive on Tuesday night at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, East Bank Demerara, while an additional 180,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca will arrive by the end of this month from India and the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility.
This is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who, in his COVID-19 update on Monday, noted that 80,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive in the country on March 8, 2021, from the Government of India. This means that there will be 100,000 doses that will be available to immunise the population by the second week of March.
Additionally, the COVAX facility is also slated to provide 100,800 doses to Guyana sometime this month; the date is being finalised. Guyana received its first 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine via donation from Barbados last month, which was used to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers and employees at the CARICOM Secretariat in Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown.
The additional doses, however, will far surpass the number of frontline workers and, as such, the Ministry of Health has taken the decision to administer the jab to persons categorised as “high risk”, including persons with underlying medical conditions and the elderly.
Dr. Anthony explained that the Health Ministry will be working with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to target pensioners to receive the vaccine; the old age pension database will be utilised.
“We’ll have a sense of who those persons are, where they are living and so forth, and we will then be able to use that to reach those persons. The persons with co-morbidities (underlying medical condition), as you would expect, a lot of people would come to our public health facilities and because a lot of people are coming to our services, we would have a list of patients at each of those clinics who are diabetic, or hypertensive or have cardiovascular diseases, or pulmonary diseases, renal diseases.
“We would be able to determine that and, therefore, health centres, district hospitals, regional hospitals, would be able to help us identify, and through that process, we would be able to give those vaccines,” the Health Minister explained.
Minister Anthony reminded that while Guyana will be receiving a significant number of COVID-19 vaccines, the country is still a far way from achieving herd immunity. He explained that between 70 per cent to 80 per cent of Guyana’s 760,000 population would need to be vaccinated, in order to achieve herd immunity. This would require a significantly larger number of COVID-19 vaccines.
“We are still a far way from herd immunity because with the allocation of 200,000 doses, that would mean that only 100,000 persons would be able to be immunised,” Dr. Anthony said.
The vaccines are administered in two doses and must be done weeks apart. Meanwhile, the Health Minister assured that the government is working strategically on more bilateral strategies in an effort to get more vaccines. He noted that once the vaccines arrive in the country, the 35 trained teams will make their way countrywide to administer the vaccines to members of the public.
