PAHO Director Appeals to Caribbean Residents to Get Vaccinated

The Director of the Pan American Health Organization, Doctor Carissa Etienne, has expressed concern about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Caribbean countries. Speaking at her weekly media briefing, Doctor Etienne, who is from Dominica, urged the people of the region to get vaccinated, wear masks and adhere to all local public health measures.  She noted that small islands in the Caribbean have limited bed capacity in intensive care units, along with limited numbers of specialized doctors. Doctor Etienne says she does not know what sources of information are triggering the high level of vaccine hesitancy, but she urges everyone to “listen to the sources where you have truthful, scientifically based information and evidence.” She also appealed to residents to trust the local vaccination systems that have served them so well before.

[PAHO Director on vaccination in the Caribbean….]

In the English-speaking Caribbean, more than one million COVID-19 cases and more than sixteen thousand one hundred and thirty-six deaths have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. To date, only fifteen percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, according to PAHO figures.