Tonight Belize has 33,600 doses of the Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine that came through the COVAX Facility.
COVAX is the global alliance ensuring equitable access to vaccines to countries that may otherwise face challenges in accessing them.
Today's delivery is part of the first phase of deliveries for Belize, and more vaccines are expected to arrive ahead of June 2021.
The vaccines arrived today at 11:30 a.m. at the Philip Goldson International Airport and a contingent form the Ministry of Health was there to received it. So was 7news. Cherisse Halsall reports:
Belize's first allotment of vaccines from the COVAX facility touched down on the tarmac of the P.G.I.A. today. It was an arrival bathed in showers of Celebration
And greeted by a host of delegates both national and international. And while it's the largest shipment of vaccines we've received so far it's not the first
That came on February 24th from our Barbadian neighbors and second, was the March 8th we received from India.
And today Minister of Health Michel Chebat reminded the nation that was it not for the kindness of those partners, today's shipment would have been Belize's first lifeline against COVID-19.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Health
"For some time this shipment was our first hope of ensuring that the people of Belize would have Covid-19 vaccines and now we celebrate it's long-anticipated arrival. With every dose that gets administered we are getting closer to sustain recovery from this pandemic. Let us continue placing our confidence and hope in medicine as we rebuild our sense of normalcy on the foundations which the science of vaccination has provided to humanity."
The hope was that vaccine distribution be equitable for all mankind but that has been far from the truth with high and upper middle-income countries having administered 86% of all vaccines and low-income countries having administered just 0.1%.
However, there was no delay with Belize's shipment.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Health
"We always knew we were getting them the first quarter of this year and I think this is just around that time. We got in 33,600 doses from the COVAX facility, this will help us to vaccinate with the first dose additional persons and we will also have a second dose for those persons who have already been vaccinated."
"The next shipment will be 66,200 and we're still waiting for a delivery date for that, but we are expect that to arrive before June."
Still, the completed COVAX shipment won't be enough to cover Belize's adult population. We put that concern to Chebat but he assured us that the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs are still hard at work doing everything in their power to secure more vaccines.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Health
"We're exploring other venues, we're talking to the African platform and we're hoping that through them we'll be able to get Johnson and Johnson/ We are also in communication with the ministers of health of the Caribbean and through CARICOM we are also trying to get additional AstraZeneca vaccines to cover what we are now missing."
The Minister also gave us an update on the vaccination rollout by confirming that 80% of our health care workers and 36% of teachers have been vaccinated.
Vaccination rollout phase 2 is now underway with the remaining teachers, police officers, ministers of the national assembly, and tourism sector workers above the age of 40 encouraged to get their first dose.
