Ministry of Health and Wellness Further Strengthens Its Vaccination Management System

Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health and Wellness received cold chain equipment from the Government of Japan and UNICEF at the National Vaccine Storage Facility in Belmopan. The Government of Japan has previously provided UNICEF Belize with a grant of nine hundred thousand U.S. dollars, as an investment in Belize’s primary health care system to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination. Since then, UNICEF has been addressing the needs of the Ministry of Health to improve the national vaccine rates. On Monday, ten Ice Line freezers, ten Main Powered Vaccine refrigerators and ten remote temperature monitoring systems were handed over to the Ministry of Health and Wellness as a part of this investment. We heard from the Minister of Health and Wellness, as well as his C.E.O.

Kevin Bernard

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness

“Today we are here to welcome again another critical donation of cold chain equipment which is used to keep vaccines at an optimum temperature range. In early March of this year Japan Government contributed U.S. ten million dollars to strengthen cold chain system and to build local capacities for vaccine management for Latin America and the Caribbean. And, today we are so honored that Belize is one of the countries to benefit from this generous and much needed support. Belize received one point eight million dollars as highlighted by Mrs. Parker, Belize dollars, to cover the project’s cold chain equipment, including the capacity building of health care workers in the management of the cold chain equipment deployed to primary health care facilities within the public health sector.”

Julio Sabido

Dr. Julio Sabido, C.E.O., Ministry of Health and Wellness

“Given that vaccination is one of the most cost effective public health interventions then it follows that equipment that is needed to maintain the integrity of the vaccines is equally important. Countries around the world prioritize vaccination against vaccine preventable diseases. In Belize the last case of vaccine preventable disease for poliomyelitis was in 1981 for measles was in 1991, for rubella 1997, and for neonatal tetanus was 1997 as well and we would like to keep it that way.”