Second Shipment of COVAX Vaccines Arrives

Belize has received its second shipment of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility.  This time, it is thirty-three thousand six hundred doses.  Minister of Health and Wellness, Michel Chebat indicated that the shipment has arrived just two days before Belize’s vaccination clinics were about to administer the last doses of the current stock.  As of May tenth, almost forty-nine thousand persons have been vaccinated in Belize.  According to a release from the Pan American Health Organization, an initial allocation of one hundred thousand eight hundred doses through COVAX was approved for Belize.  With this second shipment, Belize has now received a total of sixty-seven thousand two hundred doses since the first delivery of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine.   Under COVAX, countries are first given the opportunity to secure vaccines for at least twenty percent of their population.  In the case of Belize, coverage for thirty percent of the population was negotiated.  Once all participating countries have received enough vaccines to cover twenty percent of their population, further allocations may be made. PAHO’s Revolving Fund, which is responsible for procuring of COVID-19 vaccines for countries of the Americas under the COVAX Mechanism, facilitated both shipments.