The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that there was no crisis between the institution and Haiti after the Caribbean country rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine, which the international body offers free of charge through the COVAX mechanism.
“There is no crisis between PAHO / WHO and Haiti. Our mission is to provide technical support and recommendations to the Haitian government, which makes its own decisions independently,” a spokesman for the organization’s Haiti office said in response to questions.
Haiti is one of only four countries in the world that has not started vaccinating against covid-19.
The Haitian government has rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine for fear that the population will reject it after the thrombus cases detected in Europe, an executive source told Efe last Tuesday.
The source also accused the WHO of trying to pressure the Haitian government to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine included in the COVAX mechanism.
Regarding these alleged pressures, the WHO stated that “the final decision to accept or reject an award is between the Haitian government and COVAX facilities.
The distribution of the compound, according to the plans of the Haitian government, will be carried out in two successive stages: a first administration of doses to immunize 3% of the population, followed by a distribution of vaccines that will be administered to the remaining 17%.
According to the plan, “756,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, corresponding to the first allocation of 3%, were to be delivered by the end of May to populations identified as a priority by the Haitian government,” the WHO office said.
Haiti is one of 92 low-income countries that have gained access to the covid-19 vaccine through the Gavi COVAX AMC mechanism, which, like the rest of the participating countries, has assigned a number of doses to the Caribbean nation. % of its population by the end of 2021.