PAHO: Jamaica to get covid19 vaccines from Covax

Jamaica is set to receive covid19 vaccinations from the Covax Facility this week.

A press release from Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) stated that, in addition to Jamaica, Paraguay was also expected to get vaccines next week, Honduras was supposed to get 48,000 doses on Saturday, and orders were placed for 135,000 doses for Nicaragua and for 228,000 for Bolivia.

Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, and El Salvador have already received Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines through the Covax Facility.

It said the PAHO’s Revolving Fund, the procurement agent for the Covax for the 36 participating countries in the Americas, “is moving quickly to ensure that the rest of the countries receive their allocated doses as quickly as possible.”

PAHO director Carissa F Etienne said, “The arrivals are a major step in the fight in the Americas to defeat this devastating pandemic. They also mark a historic step in the goal of ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines globally. We are part of the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history.”

The deliveries were part of a first phase of doses countries were expected to receive, and more vaccines were expected to arrive throughout the year.

“In this first round of vaccine allocation, all Covax participating countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate between 2.2 per cent and 2.6 per cent of their population. The only exceptions are small island states, which will receive enough vaccines for 16 to 20 per cent of their population, due to the high logistical cost of delivering small quantities of vaccine.”

Trinidad and Tobago is still awaiting confirmation on when 33,000 vaccines will arrive. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh had said a shipment was due by month-end, as part of a first tranche of 100,800 vaccines. On Friday, the Prime Minister said he expected the vaccine supply challenges to be sorted out by July.

Meanwhile, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) is encouraging countries to proceed with the mass vaccination of their population as it would fight the disease and contribute to the eventual end of the pandemic.

This as several European and Asian countries including Thailand, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia, suspended their AstraZeneca vaccination campaigns because of reports of rare blood coagulation disorders in people who received the vaccine.

Carpha’s release on Friday said, “This was done as a precautionary measure while a full investigation is conducted into the reports. At present, it cannot be determined whether there is a link between the vaccine and the disorders.

“Adverse reactions that happen following immunisation with any vaccine need to be fully investigated to rule out various factors, for example concomitant illnesses, progression of a disease, and batch assessment, before a final decision is made by the health authorities.”

During a media briefing on covid19 on Friday, WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom, said the reports were specific to people who received doses of the vaccine from two batches.

He said the European Medicines Agency has found no indication of a link between the vaccine and blood clots.

"As soon as WHO has gained a full understanding of these events, the findings and any changes to our current recommendations will be communicated immediately to the public."

The Carpha release explained the World Health Organization’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety was carefully assessing the reports on the AstraZeneca vaccine. It also stressed that the vaccine being used in the Caribbean is not the same version or batch as the one in Europe.

It added that variants were part of the normal cycle of viruses and that more variants appear more frequently as more subjects become infected.

“Cutting the transmission chains through preventive measures (use of masks, washing hands, social distancing, avoiding crowds, etc) and the application of vaccines should be the primary objective at this stage of pandemic.”