BELMOPAN, Mon. Mar. 1, 2021– Last Friday, the Minister of Health and Wellness broke the good news to local media that the country has received its allocation letter from the COVAX facility. According to Hon. Chebat, we are now one step closer to the receipt of the vaccines.

During the interview with News5’s Duane Moody, Hon. Chebat confirmed that the letter indicated that one hundred thousand eight hundred vaccines would arrive in the country from the COVAX facility. This will be our first shipment of vaccines as a part of our partnership with COVAX.

He shared that the country would receive a third and fourth shipment by the third and fourth quarter of 2021. He mentioned, however, that the Government of Belize has decided to seek other avenues to procure vaccines for the population so as to not depend solely on the COVAX facility.

Recently, we reported on a shipment of 1000 COVISHIELD vaccines gifted from Barbados. These vaccines will be used to start the inoculation rollout, with the first three healthcare workers being inoculated on Monday during a MOHW press conference.

During the press conference, the Minister of Health and Wellness said, “We have gotten confirmation from the COVAX facility that we have been allocated our first batch of vaccines, which is 100,800 doses. These will be in the country by the end of the first quarter of this year.”