‘It is encouraging to see that 26 nations and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean have already vaccinated 40% or even more of their population; however, that is not the reality everywhere. Many places have very low coverage,’ PAHO´s Director Carissa F. Etienne said at a virtual conference.

Dr. Etienne recalled that last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched an ambitious new strategy to vaccinate 40% of all countries´ population before the end of 2021, but unfortunately some Latin American and Caribbean nations will require a special attention to comply with such a goal.

‘Six countries in our region have yet to reach 20% of their population, including Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti in the Caribbean and Guatemala and Nicaragua in Central America,’ she enlightened.

Faced with this situation, Etienne asserted that vaccines will help fight the Covid-19 pandemic and PAHO is committed to collaborating with all nations to achieve and succeeded WHO-outlined goals.

‘We are working to accelerate deliveries in our region, including doses obtained and donated by the Covax mechanism, especially where coverage is low. In the last few days, we hastened the delivery of 1.3 million doses donated by Spain, Germany, the United States and Canada,’ the PAHO Director stated.

‘Low vaccination coverage puts us all at risk. Therefore, we must work together and support each other with the goal of meeting or exceeding the goal of 40% immunization by the end of 2021,’ Etienne concluded.

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