PAHO has promised massive vaccination campaigns against COVID-19 in Latin America: less than 20% of the population is immune

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne announced the Promotion of the Revolving Fund initiative, an option to complement existing mechanisms and help countries exceed the 20% of the population immune to COVID-19 that has been set as the COVAX target.

“I am pleased to announce that PAHO is offering its Member States a new opportunity to access COVID-19 vaccines. The Working Capital Fund receives requests from the countries of the region to obtain these vaccinations during the last three months of 2021 and for 2022 ”, assured this Wednesday the director of this UN agency.

During her weekly press conference, Carissa Etienne noted that The Revolving Fund is an existing mechanism that provides high quality vaccines at competitive prices that countries can afford, as well as support for planning, cold chain development and the purchase of syringes and drugs. ‘other supplies.

“This new initiative with the Revolving Fund will make available to the countries of the region tens of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines, in excess of the 20% offered by COVAX and will complement bilateral agreements between countries, as well as other existing ones. so that nations have access to vaccines. It is an initiative which it will benefit all the countries of the region, corn especially those who lack the resources and bargaining power to ensure doses that protect their populations», Etienne explained.

Thus, it was reported that PAHO has a vaccine coverage monitoring system that quickly and efficiently identifies the immunization needs of each country, which will help to make better agreements with manufacturers and to distribute doses. equitably, depending on epidemiology and vaccination coverage.

“Our region must follow all possible avenues to accelerate access and ensure that countries meet their immunization targets. We need more donations and we need COVAX to meet its initial commitments, but we also need to create new opportunities that are tailored to the needs of our Member States and that increase vaccine supply to the populations and communities most at risk. risk “, underlined the director of the agency.

So far, vaccine donations for Latin America and the Caribbean a total of 40.5 million doses, which constitutes 21% of vaccinations carried out thanks to COVAX. About 86% of donations come from the United States and the rest come from Norway, Sweden, France, Mexico, India, China and Spain, among other countries.

Some 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have already submitted their immunization requests under the new initiative. PAHO plans to begin distributing these vaccines in October.

For his part, the deputy director of the organization, Dr Jarbas Barbosa, detailed that the agency is negotiating with all vaccine producers who have emergency use authorization from the World Health Organization, and that they already have an offer for both the last three months of this year and all of the next.

In this sense, he stressed that the objective of the initiative is to help countries achieve high immunization coverage, “About 70% or 80% that are considered necessary to control transmission, in conjunction with public health measures.”

Thus, Barbosa specified that the objective of 20% vaccination coverage in each country with COVAX will be reached to cover populations at risk. “But to control the transmission of the coronavirus, countries must go beyond this figure and it is not very clear whether COVAX will continue to offer vaccines after achieving this goal, which is why we have launched this alternative”, abounded.

PAHO reported that Over the past week, over 1.3 million cases of COVID-19 and over 19,000 disease-related deaths have been recorded in America. In the United States, Mexico and Canada, the numbers have increased due to the relaxation of sanitary measures and circulation of the delta variant, in addition to the fact that the vaccination rate varies by country.

In Central America, cases declined in Panama and Costa Rica, but increased in Honduras, Belize and El Salvador. Deaths on the rise in all Central American countries; in fact, in El Salvador they have increased by 30%. In the Caribbean, cases have increased in Cuba, Martinique, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

However, a decrease in cases and deaths has been observed in the Andean zone, Brazil and the Southern Cone in general. Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay recorded significant losses.

The emergency director of the United Nations agency spoke of Cuba, where the level of contagion is very high and last week cases increased by 3.9% compared to the previous week and deaths increased by 20% .

“This is due to the lack of essential supplies for the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but also of basic supplies at all levels of the health system in Cuba,” said Dr Ciro Ugarte. In this sense, he added that PAHO works closely with the Cuban Ministry of Health to identify the most urgent needs.

Thus, Ugarte clarified that between the end of July and the beginning of August, the agency sent material to Cuba to support the first level of care, as well as for covid-19, and planned that they will continue to send more. Provisions. “However, this support is limited,” he recalled.

The expert stressed that, given this situation, the organization will analyze with other donors and countries keen to help Cuba respond to the emergency, as well as other health needs. “It’s an extremely difficult situation. We need more solidarity from the region. We have great needs in Cuba. We must mobilize solidarity towards this country “, Ugarte pointed out.

(with EP information)

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