The Diplomat
Spain yesterday began donating 7.5 million COVID-19 vaccines to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be distributed through the Covax mechanism. Peru, Paraguay, Guatemala and Nicaragua were the first recipients.
The donation is in line with the commitment announced at the Ibero-American Summit in Andorra by the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and follows the agreement reached between AstraZeneca, Covax and Spain.
The first donation, of 101,760 doses of the vaccine, was delivered in Lima in the early hours of last Thursday morning to the Peruvian Vice-Minister of Health Benefits and Insurance, Bernardo Ostos Jara.
Late yesterday afternoon, Paraguay received 253,440 doses and Guatemala 201,600. A further 97,920 doses are due to be delivered to Nicaragua today.
According to a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the distribution of the doses destined for Latin America and the Caribbean is based on the epidemiological needs of the countries in the region, as determined by the Pan American Health Organisation, and the coordination of actions by the different actors involved, which is carried out by Covax.
These first deliveries will be followed in the next few days by another to Ecuador, and as the process progresses, other shipments to the region will continue progressively, which will reinforce the aid provided by Spain in recent months to several Latin American and Caribbean countries in the form of technical cooperation and shipments of medicines and other supplies necessary for the fight against COVID-19, according to the Foreign Ministry’s note.
The Ministry’s note recalls that the Spanish government has pledged to donate a total of 22.5 million of the vaccines authorised in the European Union and used in Spain, of which at least 7.5 million will go to Latin American countries. The donations are channelled through Covax – a mechanism coordinated by the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) – with logistical support from UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), in line with Spain’s desire to articulate a multilateral response to the crisis caused by COVID-19.
All of this is part of the Universal Access Plan: Sharing vaccines against Covid-19. “Vaccination in Solidarity”, approved by the Spanish government last January, which defines the donation strategy. The main objective of this plan is to contribute to ensuring fair, affordable and universal access to vaccines as a global public good, in order to respond to Spanish society’s call for solidarity.
The plan also responds to the need to end the COVID-19 pandemic, which will not be achieved unless acceptable immunity is achieved throughout the world’s population.
Spain makes these vaccine donations in close coordination with the EU and its Member States within the framework of Team Europe, which has so far contributed 2.47 billion euros to Covax and committed to donating more than 500 million doses. The goal of the mechanism is to immunise at least 20 per cent of the population of the 190 member nations by the end of the year.
