Caricom foreign affairs ministers talk covid19 vaccines with US

MINISTER of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dr Amery Browne chaired a virtual meeting with fellow Caricom ministers, secretariat officials, CARPHA (Caribbean Public Health Agency) and US public health and White House covid19 response officials on Wednesday.

In a release, the ministry said “several critical issues were resolved” at the meeting.

The meeting “focused on arrangements related to the US-sponsored covid19 vaccine donations to be received by Caricom member states as announced recently by the US Government.”

To date, the US has donated vaccines to nine countries in Latin America – Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay.

In June, the US government listed Haiti “and other Caricom countries” as countries in the Caribbean that will receive covid19 vaccines from its planned global donation of 80 million doses.

It said, “Approximately 14 million for Latin America and the Caribbean to the following: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti and other Caricom countries, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Costa Rica."

These vaccines are being delivered through Covax.

The release said, “Caricom foreign ministers acknowledged that the dialogue was very fruitful and renewed their commitment to continue working extensively with the US Government to hasten the acquisition process, while ensuring due diligence to fulfil all the necessary requirements to receive the vaccine donations in the region in the shortest possible time.”