For example, we are on the ground in Haiti 🇭🇹 helping the country make the most of the vaccines it has on hand and working with the Haitian governments and international partner NGOs to plan for additional allocations of vaccine supply in the coming months
Our technical and procurement teams have been working closely with these countries to help them prepare health workers 👩🏿⚕️👨🏾⚕️ and health systems so they can absorb and administer these vaccines 💉
Over the next few months 🗓, PAHO will work closely with COVAX to deliver tens of millions of doses 📦 to our region – many of which are allocated for countries with low ⬇️ vaccine coverage – like Jamaica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.
At that summit, I told participants that overcoming this pandemic rests on having the tools to prevent, detect and treat COVID-19 🦠, and that we must expand global vaccine production by leveraging the expertise and capacity of regions like our own 🌎
Most countries 🌎 continue to have limited access to vaccines, so we are encouraged by announcements made at last week’s Global COVID-19 Summit, where world leaders pledged an additional 850 million COVID vaccine doses 💉
While Canada, Chile, Uruguay, and Puerto Rico have fully vaccinated over 70% of their populations, ten countries and territories in our region have yet to reach 20% of their populations.
And in Haiti, fewer than 1% of people have been protected 🩹 so far
Vaccines 💉 have the power to save lives and change the course of the pandemic, so today I want to offer an update on immunization efforts in the Americas 🌎
