The private pharmaceutical sector will be authorized to import vaccines against covid-19 in Haiti, announced on Thursday the government of this country, which must receive doses through the Covax mechanism and is one of the few that has not begun to vaccinate its population. .
“It is already possible to obtain authorization to import stocks of vaccines so that those who wish can access vaccination against covid-19 as soon as possible,” said the Ministry of Health.
Haitian importers of pharmaceuticals and doctors will have to indicate to the ministry the quantities and types of vaccines chosen before they are allowed to buy the doses directly.
Haiti is one of the few countries that has not yet started its vaccination campaign. The Health Ministry said it expects to receive 130,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine “between early and mid-July” through the World Health Organization’s Covax program.
In the very unequal country, most of the inhabitants do not have access to basic health care. Only the wealthy minority of Haitians will be able to access this vaccination from the private sector.
Some of them have already decided to travel to Florida to receive their fix.
Relatively exempt from the pandemic so far, Haiti is experiencing an increase in covid-19 cases since May, after the Alpha and Gamma variants were detected in its territory (first identified in the United Kingdom in December 2020 and in Brazil in January 2021, respectively).
Gang violence in the capital of Port-au-Prince is complicating the fight against the pandemic, for example by forcing hundreds of families from their homes to crowd into makeshift shelters.
Since March 2020, some 18,000 people have officially tested positive for the virus.
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