Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris Friday called on the United States and other vaccine producing countries to ensure the equitable distribution of the vaccine needed to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) that has killed thousands of people in the Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping.
Harris, who also has lead responsibility for health within the quasi-Caricom cabinet, said greater effort is needed from larger countries with greater resources, like the United States, to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines globally, and particular within Caricom.
“The US is the most important partner to the Caricom member states, and St Kitts and Nevis in particular. It supplies us with the largest intake of tourists, and it is the market for most of what we export,” Harris said on the US based Bloomberg QuickTake, a global streaming news network.
“What we really would have loved to see is that the US would have shown early leadership in terms of support to the region as we fight a most dangerous pandemic. The US at this moment has excess vaccines.
“The Caribbean region needs vaccines desperately and in the short term, we would require the United States of America to make a portion of those excess vaccines available to Caricom member states, including St Kitts and Nevis,” Prime Minister Harris said during the programme.
Harris told the programme that his twin island Federation’s vaccination process is progressing reasonably well, despite some levels of vaccine hesitancy amongst the population.
“We have about 42 per cent of our target population covered; covered meaning they at least had their first shot of the vaccine. The vaccine of choice here is the AstraZeneca vaccine and that is of course a two-dose regime.
Source-CMC
