Haiti rejected vaccines donated by the Dominican Republic to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a slight that represents a new episode of tension between both countries, neighbors on the island of Hispaniola.
Sources very close to the process confirmed this Tuesday to Free Journal that the Haitian government decided not to receive the 100,000 doses of the vaccine from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca that the Dominican Republic intended to donate to that country.
The donation was announced last week as part of a 505,000-dose donation that the Dominican Republic would send to Haiti, Honduras and Guatemala, as a way to tackle the ‘unfair and unequal’ international distribution of vaccines.
The vaccines rejected by the Haitian authorities will now be sent to Guatemala, as he knew Free Journal, and Haiti’s action has not been well taken by the Dominican government.
The Dominican Government reported last Friday that it would send, as a donation, the vaccines to neighboring countries of the Caribbean and Central America, in order to protect their population against COVID-19.
He said the donation was made at the request of neighboring nations. “The national authorities ordered the immediate start of an international cooperation program to help, to the extent of our possibilities, these sister countries affected by the unfair and unequal international distribution of vaccines,” the government said in a statement.
And in that sense, he indicated that “Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez maintains permanent contact with his counterparts in Central America and the Caribbean to respond to the specific demand of each of the countries.”
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It is not the first rejection
It is not the first time, however, that Haiti has rejected the donation of vaccines.. Several months ago, the Haitian authorities opposed receiving AstraZeneca vaccines through the World Health Organization’s Covax mechanism, due to the international “uproar” that was generated at that time about their safety and efficacy.
Finally, on July 14, Haiti received 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the Pharmaceutical Moderna donated by the United States through the COVAX mechanism and became the fourth country in the region to receive these donations, after Honduras, El Salvador and Bolivia.
“The arrival of these vaccines is very promising and now the challenge is to get them to the people who need them most,” said then the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa F. Etienne. “PAHO, along with other partners, is committed to helping the Haitian people in these uncertain times and urges other international organizations to join us in supporting the response to COVID-19.”
The donation was part of the United States Government’s plans to increase vaccination coverage against COVID-19 in other countries of the world, counteract new waves of infection and prioritize the vaccination of health workers and other vulnerable populations in the neighboring countries that need vaccines. The United States government has pledged to donate some 12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.
“These vaccines, which have obtained an emergency use license from the WHO, will be administered free of charge to the Haitian population,” said Dr. Marie Gréta Roy Clément, Haiti’s Minister of Public Health and Population.
“In terms of public health, vaccination continues to be one of the most effective interventions. This first vaccine allocation ends a long waiting period not only for the Haitian population but also for the inhabitants of the region, who were very concerned that Haiti was the only country in the Americas that had not yet introduced the COVID-vaccine. 19 “, added the minister.
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