The World Health Organization (WHO) said today that there was no crisis between the institution and Haiti after the Caribbean country rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine that the international body offers through the COVAX mechanism for free. .
“There is no crisis between PAHO / WHO and Haiti. Our mission is to provide technical support and recommendations to the Haitian government, which makes its own decisions independently,” a spokesman for the Haiti office said. of this body in response to questions from Efe.
Haiti is one of only four countries in the world that has not started vaccinating against covid-19.
The Haitian government rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine for fear that the population would reject it after the cases of thrombi detected in Europe, an executive source told Efe last Tuesday.
The source also accused the WHO of trying to pressure the Haitian government to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine included in the COVAX mechanism.
On these alleged pressures, the WHO stated that “the final decision to accept or reject an award is between the Haitian government and COVAX facilities.”
The distribution of the compost, according to the plans of the Haitian Government, will be carried out in two successive phases: a first delivery of doses to immunize 3% of the population, followed by a distribution of vaccines that will be administered to the ‘17% remaining contemplated in the plan.
Under the plan, “756,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, corresponding to the first allocation of 3%, were to be delivered by the end of May to populations identified as a priority by the Haitian government,” he said. WHO office.
Haiti is one of 92 low-income countries that have gained access to the covid-19 vaccine through Gavi’s COVAX AMC mechanism, which, like the rest of the participating countries, has been assigned a Caribbean nation. amount of doses to vaccinate 20% of its population by the end of 2021.