BELIZE CITY, Fri. Oct 8, 2021– During a Zoom interview last week, Dr. Melissa Diaz spoke on the maintenance of the cold-chain used in the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. The Covid-19 vaccines are very delicate since they use tiny lipid droplets to transport and protect the vaccine component, the messenger RNA (mRNA). This requires that the vaccines stay at a very low temperature, so cold storages are required by countries across the world to stock the life-saving vaccines.

There have been reports across the world of massive Covid-19 vaccine wastage in some countries that have failed to properly manage their cold chain. A study from the WHO estimates that by the end of 2021, at least 70 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines will go to waste.

In Belize, our country’s vaccination campaign focal point and Deputy Regional Health Officer for the Central Health Region, Dr. Melissa Diaz, shared that the country maintains a very robust vaccine system.

“The country of Belize always has a very robust vaccine system in place. The cold chain is excellent; we (take) the caution of ensuring the cold chain is never broken. Our nurses have been fully trained, the public and the rural health nurses that mostly head the vaccine campaigns and our outpatient nurses ensure that the cold chain is never broken,” Dr. Diaz shared.

This means, according to Dr. Diaz, that the vaccines administered to persons in Belize so far are all checked out as safe and effective.

Dr. Diaz was asked if deaths being seen in the country among vaccinated persons could be because of some fault in the Covid-19 vaccine, and she shared that there is no trend to conclude that that is the case, and noted that deaths in vaccinated persons are being seen across the entire country.