Other Vaccines Will be Acquired for Belize

Michel Chebat

Later this week, a third shipment of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to arrive in country through the COVAX facility.  But the Ministry of Health and Wellness is also in the process of acquiring the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.  As it relates to the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines, there is need for cold storage facility, which the country is procuring later this month.

Michel Chebat, Minister of Health & Wellness

“We are expecting to receive some in country sometime around the seventeenth or eighteenth of this month – I hope I have those dates correct – but I can tell you that the month of June, we’re expecting some of those freezers. And again it is in line with the discussions we’ve been having to acquire the Pfizer vaccine to target that twelve to eighteen year old population. We are working through the African platform which we are dealing with through CARICOM to acquire the Johnson and Johnson vaccinations. We have made a down payment for a hundred and fifteen thousand dosages. We are expecting those to be in country by August of this year. At the ministry, we continue to look for other vaccines especially the ones that have received emergency use authorization from the World Health Organization – that is our standard – and so as the WHO recognises more vaccines, we actively try to see how we can acquire them for our citizens.”

This week, Belize received a half-a-million U.S.-dollar grant from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, to put towards the fight against COVID-19.  A release from CABEI says the funds may be used for the purchase of medicines or medical supplies, communication campaigns and other efforts. All member countries of the Central American Integration System, better known as SICA, were allocated these funds in the same amount.