United States plan to send vaccines to the Dominican Republic

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced the donation of 6 million vaccines against COVID-19 and help 14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic.

In his message, it was not specified to which pharmaceutical company the doses that will be sent belong.

The president emphasized that the United States will share the vaccines “to save lives and lead the world” to end the pandemic.

The countries that will be receiving the vaccines are the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, and Haiti.

Dominican Congressman Adriano Espaillat assured that it is likely that in the next few hours the protocol of how these doses will be received and presented.

“We have worked and pushed for the president to include the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean countries, and the regions that emigrate the most to the US among those who will receive the donation”, Espaillat said.

Approximately 7 million of the doses will be shipped to Asia, to the following countries and entities: India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, and the Pacific Islands.

Approximately 5 million will be sent to Africa in countries to be selected in coordination with the African Union.

About 6 million will go to regional priorities and associated beneficiaries, including Mexico, Canada and the Republic of Korea, the West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, India, Iraq, and Yemen, as well. As for the front-line workers of the United Nations.

“My administration supports efforts to temporarily waive intellectual property rights to COVID-19 vaccines because, over time, we need more companies to produce proven, life-saving doses of vaccines that are equitably shared,” said President Biden.

In total, 80 million vaccines will be distributed from the US, and 75% of these will go to the COVAX mechanism, and the remaining 25% to the aforementioned countries.