Cuba and Haiti are the only two large countries in the Caribbean region that have not yet begun vaccination against covid, while the rest of the islands, with the exception of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, have already begun the process of low-dose inoculation. rhythm.
Puerto Rico’s U.S. state status has facilitated the campaign and the island matters already with almost 14% of the vaccinated population, with a special control among the population over 60 years of age.
Faced with these data in the Greater Antilles, Haiti presents the worst case scenario, Cuba is betting everything on its own vaccine, the Dominican Republic is advancing slowly but steadily and Jamaica has started an initial vaccination program for medical staff this Wednesday.
LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT HAITI
Haiti has not purchased vaccines or announced plans to immunize the country’s population, which has been relatively unaffected by the virus according to official statistics.
For future vaccination, the Caribbean country will depend entirely on the COVAX mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO), which at this time has allocated 756,000 doses, for a population of 11 million, although there is not yet a date for the first transport.
In Haiti, health authorities have confirmed more than 12,500 infections and 250 deaths caused by covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
With these official data, for months, Haitians have lived as if the virus did not exist, did not wear masks or did not take other usual protection measures.
Without going any further, the Government itself encouraged the crowds, with the organization of the Carnival, but for now there is no information that these parts have increased infections or put more pressure on hospitals.
However, the neighboring country, the Dominican Republic, manages better data. As Vice President Raquel Peña reported on Thursday, the first dose of vaccine has been inoculated in 600,000 people since the immunization process began on February 16.
Analyzing the government’s vaccination plan, Peña indicated that the Dominican Republic ranks as the second country in Latin America to administer the most vaccines per 100,000 inhabitants, just behind Chile.
Despite these good data, hundreds of thousands of Haitians, the country’s main immigrant community, are excluded from the Dominican government’s immunization plan because they do not have identification documents and are illegal immigrants.
CUBA, BETWEEN FAITH AND THE THIRD OND
In Cuba, there is a race against time against the SARS-Cov-2 virus and in favor of the recognized development capacity of its biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.
One year after the first coronavirus cases were detected, the island suffers the worst wave of infections, but continues to bet on the first Latin American country to develop a vaccine to immunize its entire population this year.
Cuba is currently developing five possible covid vaccines, with Sovereign 02 being the most advanced. However, it will not be until 3 or 4 months, if the last phase of studies is completed, when it is available to the Cuban population.
The Cuban government has not purchased doses on the international market, nor is it one of the 33 Latin American countries that have joined the COVAX Mechanism, created under the auspices of the World Health Organization to promote equitable access to immunization for high-income countries. .
DISPERSION IN THE ISLANDS
Vaccination in the smaller Caribbean islands continues to progress slowly and, according to the OurWorldInData portal developed by the University of Oxford, the islands of Guadeloupe, Antigua and Barbuda, Martinique and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines do not yet have doses for coronavirus.
In contrast, the islands of Jamaica, Bahamas, Aruba, Curaçao, Anguilla, Montserrat, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago have vaccines, most with AstraZeneca.
Another hopeful piece of information is that much of these countries and small territories in the area are associated with the COVAX mechanism and many of them, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), will receive the next deliveries before May.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has, however, warned of the need for equitable access to covid-19 vaccines, as was stated at their last meeting of heads of government in February.