Haiti, refused a donation of 756,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) via the Covax mechanism, reported Tuesday April 6, according to the Spanish news agency EFE who quotes a high-ranking source requesting the anonymity within the Haitian Government.

According to this source the Haitian Government refused to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured under license by "Serum Institute of India" because of "the global unrest surrounding this vaccine", considering that the population of Haiti "would not accept it".

The Haitian authorities have asked the WHO to send vaccines from other laboratories to Haiti, including the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson laboratories which requires only one injection and which can be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius. But the World Health Organization is "reluctant" to accept Haiti's demands, reminding Haitian authorities that "the deadlines are running out".

Note that Haiti is one of the four countries in the world (out of 192 infected with Covid-19) not to have started to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus according to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of WHO.

Note that according to figures from the Ministry of Public Health Haiti would be relatively unaffected by the coronavirus, with a total of 12,803 confirmed cases (as of March 28, 2021 latest data available https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33419-haiti-covid-19-haiti-special-report-382.html ) confirmed cases throughout the national territory since the first case (March 19, 2020 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30319-haiti-health-origin-of-the-first-2-cases-of-covid-19-in-haiti.html However, many experts believe that these data do not reflect the true extent of the pandemic in Haiti due to the limited capacity detection of the virus in the country.

Find out more about COVAX :

Covax is an initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO) is the result of an extraordinary and unique global collaboration, with more than two-thirds of the world engaged (Governments, World Health Organizations, laboratories, scientists, the private sector, civil society and philanthropy), with the aim of providing innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines regardless of people's wealth.

COVAX has the largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines in the world, and as such represents the world's best hope for an early end to this pandemic.

So far COVAX has shipped more than 36 million doses of vaccine to 86 countries as of April 5, according to the UN spokesperson.

SL/ HaitiLibre