As of June 5, this 11.3-million inhabitants country had reported 15,895 COVID-19 infections and 333 related deaths.
Haiti is the only western country that has not started COVID-19 vaccination yet. Apparently, one of the reasons for this delay is its rejection of the AstraZeneca doses that the COVAX facility assigned to this country.
Although Haiti is among the 92 low- and middle-income countries that should have been benefited from the COVAX initiative, these multilaterally funded vaccines did not arrive in the country due to security and logistical reasons.
In this regard, Health Minister Laure Adrien explained that his country did not reject the COVAX vaccines but rather asked to change the doses offered.
As of June 5, this 11.3-million inhabitants country had reported 15,895 COVID-19 infections and 333 related deaths.
Although these statistics are relatively lower compared to other Latin American countries, infections and deaths in Haiti have multiplied by five times after the arrival of new variants last month.
Adrien assured that it is not clear whether Haiti will first receive the doses from the COVAX facility or the U.S.-donated vaccines.
According to the Haitian minister, however, the late start of the vaccination program will not have any impact on the recovery of normal economic activities.
