Costa Rica to become 10th Latin American country to get US-donated vaccines

COSTA Rica is set to become the tenth country in Latin America and the Caribbean to receive covid19 vaccines from the US' global donation drive.

Chargé d'affaires at the US embassy in Costa Rica, Gloria Berbena, posted to Twitter saying, "I am pleased to announce that the US is preparing to ship vaccines to Costa Rica next week."

This was shared by US President Joe Biden's special assistant Juan Gonzales with the caption, "Next week."

The brand of vaccine was not named.

There has been no official word on when the US will begin donating vaccines to the Caribbean region. But 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 last week.

In the region thus far, the US has donated vaccines to 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."

This means the remaining countries from this list are Brazil, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Panama and "Haiti and other Caricom countries."