PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Haiti received its first COVID-19 vaccines since the pandemic began on Wednesday, a batch of 500,000 doses as the country grapples with a spike in the number of infections and deaths.
The Pan American Health Organization noted that the United States donated the doses through the United Nations COVAX program for low-income countries.
The shipment was Moderna vaccines, spokeswoman Nadia Peimbert-Rappaport told The Associated Press.
“The arrival of these vaccines is quite promising, and now the challenge is to get them to the people who need them most,” said Dr. Carissa Etienne, PAHO Director, in a statement.
The doses will be applied free of charge, said Dr. Marie Gréta Roy Clément, Haitian Minister of Public Health and Population.
“This first batch of vaccines ends a long waiting period not only for the population of Haiti, but also for the people of the region who were very concerned that Haiti was the only country on the continent that had not yet received vaccines against COVID-19, ”he declared in a statement.
Haiti has reported more than 19,300 confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 480 deaths from the disease as it battles a wave of cases that have forced hospitals to turn away patients. Experts believe that these figures are far below the real ones due to the low number of diagnostic tests carried out in the country, which has more than 11 million inhabitants.
Haiti was scheduled to receive about 756,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last May through the COVAX program, but delivery was delayed due to government concerns about a possible link between that inoculation and thrombus development, as well as lack of infrastructure to keep vaccines properly refrigerated.
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