The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed this Friday that there is no crisis between the institution and Haiti after the Caribbean country rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine that the international agency is offering for free through the COVAX mechanism.
“There is no crisis between PAHO / WHO and Haiti. Our mission is to provide support and technical recommendations to the Haitian government, which makes its own decisions independently,” said a spokesperson for the organization’s Haiti office in response to questions from Efe.
Haiti is one of only four countries in the world that has not started to vaccinate against Covid-19.
The Haitian government has rejected the AstraZeneca vaccine for fear that the population would reject it after cases of thrombi discovered in Europe, an executive source told Efe on Tuesday.
The source also accused the WHO of trying to pressure the Haitian government into accepting the AstraZeneca vaccine in the COVAX mechanism.
Regarding this alleged pressure, the WHO stated that “the final decision to accept or reject an award lies between the Haitian government and COVAX facilities.
The distribution of the compound, according to the plans of the Haitian government, will occur in two consecutive stages: an initial delivery of doses to immunize 3% of the population, followed by a distribution of vaccines to be administered to the remaining ones. 17% considered in the plan.
Under the plan, “756,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, corresponding to the initial 3% allocation, would be delivered by the end of May to populations identified as priorities by the Haitian government,” the WHO office said.
Haiti is one of 92 low-income countries to have access to the covid-19 vaccine through Gavi’s COVAX AMC mechanism, which, like the rest of the participating countries, has allocated a number of doses to the Caribbean nation. % of the population by the end of 2021.